By Abdoulie John
American human rights campaigner Reed Brody has welcomed a U.S.-Gambia agreement to send more than $2.5 million from the sale of a seized Potomac, Maryland, mansion linked to former President Yahya Jammeh to a fund for victims of rights abuses.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs said Finance Minister Seedy K.M. Keita and U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Robert Anderson signed the deal transferring $2,507,911.73 to The Gambia’s Victims Reparation Fund.
Brody, a member of the #Jammeh2Justice campaign, called it a hard-won result. “This is a genuinely significant development and rewards many years of work by the activists who identified the Potomac mansion, the Janneh Commission, the Gambian and American governments, and victims and their organizations,” he told The Alkamba Times.
He said Jammeh looted the country for 22 years and left a trail of victims. “It is only right, and just, that money recovered from an asset bought with the proceeds of that corruption is being returned to help compensate his victims.”
The property was forfeited in 2022. Brody said the delay made speed and fairness essential now. “The priority now will be getting this money into victims’ hands as quickly, fairly and transparently as possible. They have waited long enough.”
Pressed on whether the deal was too late and too little, he did not soften the point. “Someone who was tortured, or who lost a loved one to Jammeh’s death squads, or who was forced off their HIV medication by a man who claimed he could cure them with his bare hands — for those people, justice is always too late, and reparations are always too little.”
Even so, he rejected the idea that the money is meaningless. “No amount of money can give back what was taken. That is simply the reality of what these victims have lived through. But ‘too late and too little’ is not the same as ‘worthless.’ This money can make a real difference in real lives. It can help a widow rebuild her life. It can help a survivor get the care they need. Better late than never.”
Investigators later alleged he looted state resources and left behind a trail of torture, enforced disappearances, and other abuses. The Potomac property was forfeited in 2022 after U.S. authorities determined it had been bought with proceeds of corruption.
Officials have not yet detailed how the Victims Reparation Fund will distribute the funds or when payments will begin. Advocates say the next test will be whether the process is transparent and reaches those most harmed during Jammeh’s rule.
