Gambia: $2.5 million from Jammeh's villa paid into victims' fund

The Gambia's Reparations Commission confirmed on October 20, 2026, that it had received just over $2.5 million, the proceeds from the sale of a villa belonging to former president Yahya Jammeh in Potomac, near Washington. The money was deposited into the Reparations Fund account at the Central Bank of The Gambia, the Commission stated, as cited by Al Jazeera. President Adama Barrow indicated that he would follow the auditors' recommendations regarding the distribution.

A villa purchased with public money

The property was acquired in 2010 by Zineb Jammeh, the head of state's wife, through a trust. In 2020, the U.S. justice system initiated civil forfeiture proceedings, concluding that it had been paid for with bribes and embezzled public funds; a court ordered the forfeiture in 2022. In September 2026, the Department of Justice announced the restitution of the funds, and an agreement was signed in Banjul between the Gambian Minister of Finance and the U.S. Embassy, according to Africanews.

1,009 victims, 19% of the amounts owed

The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), which investigated violations committed between 1994 and 2017, had identified 1,009 victims for a total cost of just over $4 million, according to JusticeInfo. Due to a lack of funds, it was only able to pay 19% of what each victim was due to receive. The scales provide for approximately $8,200 for an extrajudicial killing or enforced disappearance, and $2,670 for torture. The 2026 budget allocated only 20 million dalasis, or about $274,000, to this.

At the beginning of 2026, the Commission explained to JusticeInfo that it had not yet received any of these funds. U.S. authorities had recovered $3.5 million from the sale at that time, according to the same media outlet; the amount paid to Banjul totals just over $2.5 million.

Prosecutions, however, are not moving forward

Yahya Jammeh ruled The Gambia for twenty-two years. Defeated in the 2016 presidential election by Adama Barrow, he left power in 2017 under pressure from his West African neighbors and lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea. He is accused of murdering opponents, enforced disappearances, rape, and torture. A commission of inquiry estimated that his forces killed between 240 and 250 people.

The Gambian state claims to have collected more than $20 million from selling the seized assets of the former president, enough to cover the reparations recommended by the TRRC several times over; no public data indicates how this sum was spent, notes JusticeInfo. The families of the victims of November 11, 1994, are demanding trials, not just compensation.