Gambia releases 171 prisoners as President commits to end human rights abuses

The Gambia’s President Adama Barrow has reiterated his commitment to ending human rights abuses in the country, ordering the release of all those ‘detained without trial’.

"Orders have already been given for all those detained without trial to be released," Barrow said Saturday before thousands of Gambians who gathered at Independence Stadium Saturday to witness his official inauguration and celebrate Gambia's independence anniversary.

As a result, a total of 171 inmates in the tiny West African nation's notorious 2 Mile Prison were set free. They were all detained without trial some time during former President Yahya Jammeh's 22-year rule.

Jammeh's tenure was marred by clampdowns on dissenting views, enforced disappearances and detention without trial, creating a climate of fear. Hundreds of people were jailed for their political views and thousands of others were forced to flee the country.

Jammeh clung to power, creating a political crisis that forced Barrow to be inaugurated in January in Senegal, which surrounds Gambia except for its coast.

International pressure, including the threat of a regional military intervention, led Jammeh to finally accept his election loss on 21 January and fly into exile in Equatorial Guinea.

Barrow has pledged to reverse Jammeh's repressive policies and promised to keep The Gambia in the International Criminal Court, rejoin the Commonwealth, and free political prisoners. At Saturday's ceremony, Barrow said his government will undertake key constitutional and legal reforms and said he would highlight them in his first address to the National Assembly.

"It (the legal reform) intends to enforce constitutional provisions that are entrenched to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens," he said.

Barrow said the Attorney General and minister of justice will receive information regarding all those who were arrested without being found. "An appropriate commission would be established to conduct inquiries into their disappearances," he said.

Barrow has also promised to establish a truth and reconciliation commission.