{"id":29986,"date":"2016-11-03T01:53:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T01:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/gambia-president-yahya-jammeh-silencing-critics\/"},"modified":"2016-11-03T01:53:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T01:53:44","slug":"gambia-president-yahya-jammeh-silencing-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/gambia-president-yahya-jammeh-silencing-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambia President Yahya Jammeh &#8216;silencing critics&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia is using violence to silence critics in the lead-up to presidential election in December and pressure is needed to stop it, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.}<\/p>\n<p>Mr Jammeh has denied similar allegations in the past.<\/p>\n<p>He will be seeking re-election for a fifth term and for the first time he will be facing a single major opposition candidate.<\/p>\n<p>HRW urges external pressure on The Gambia to prevent further violence.<\/p>\n<p>In a report published on Wednesday, the group says two Gambian activists have died in custody, with dozens of critics of President Jammeh in jail.<\/p>\n<p>They are being denied medical or legal help, the report says.<\/p>\n<p>The Gambia, a popular tourist destination because of its beaches, has never experienced a democratic transition of power since independence.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Jammeh took over in a 1994 coup. His critics accuse him of running a repressive state, an allegation he denies.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the major Gambian opposition parties last week picked a single candidate &#8211; businessman Adama Barrow of the United Democratic Party (UDP).<\/p>\n<p>Mr Barrow&#8217;s nomination is the result of the biggest opposition alliance in Gambia since independence, the AFP news agency reported.<\/p>\n<p>HRW says the prospect of political change in December has prompted Mr Jammeh&#8217;s government to step up oppression against critics.<\/p>\n<p>It claims a torture squad, linked to the presidential guard, is terrorising opponents ahead of the election.<\/p>\n<p>The group wants freedom benchmarks to be imposed now &#8211; by the United States, the European Union and The Gambia&#8217;s West African neighbours &#8211; to prevent more bloodshed.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, The Gambia said it would pull of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after accusing the tribunal of persecuting and humiliating Africans.<\/p>\n<p>The small West African nation joined South Africa and Burundi in saying it will withdraw from the court.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-16145 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_92091448_07f44296-c0bd-45e4-aef7-dceea75486f7.jpg\" alt=\"President Yahya Jammeh has governed The Gambia since 1994\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia is using violence to silence critics in the lead-up to presidential election in December and pressure is needed to stop it, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.} Mr Jammeh has denied similar allegations in the past. He will be seeking re-election for a fifth term and for the first time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29986"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29986"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}