Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana says it is sending a team of investigators to the Gambia soon to ask for assistance from President Yahya Jammeh for investigations into the death of some 50 immigrants, including 44 Ghanaians, who were allegedly murdered by Gambian security forces about two years ago.
Ghanaian authorities have raised the matter with President Jammeh at the highest level but have received no cooperation and reports indicate that Ghana has sent a strongly-worded letter to President Jammeh asking for his country's cooperation, warning that inaction could negatively impact their bilateral relations.
The director of the Legal Bureau at the Ghana Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Co-operation and NEPAD, Odoi Anim said the team of investigators would visit the Gambia in August.
He said a Ghanaian investigating team that was in Gambia earlier, identified the place of the murders and the boat on which the victims were travelling before their abduction and subsequent killing.
"We saw where the gentlemen have been murdered. Yes 44 plus people died...we have identified positively eight Ghanaians. Their family members have been notified...the preliminary investigations show they died of shock and trauma," Odoi Anim said on a radio programme in Accra.
Gambia has denied that any Ghanaian had been murdered but the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has been digging deep into the murders and demanding answers from Gambian authorities.
CHRI and Ghanaian civil society organisations have also asked the Ghana government to take concrete action to establish the facts and demand justice and compensation.
CHRI has said it would take the matter to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled for Uganda in November and also the UN Human Rights Council.
Human rights activists believe that threats of demonstrations against the Gambian leader in the just-ended African Union summit apparently forced him to stay away.
Ghana pursues killing of 50 immigrants in Gambia | Afrique en ligne
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