The President of the Gambia Adama Barrow has announced a moratorium on death penalty as the country begins rebuilding its human rights records after the exit of longtime leader Yahya Jammeh.
President Barrow made the announcement on Sunday, weeks after also returning his country to the commonwealth, an organization his predecessor branded as a “neo-colonial institution”.
Adama Barrow said during a speech to mark 53 years since The Gambia gained independence from Great Britain that “I will use this opportunity to declare a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in The Gambia, as a first step towards abolition”.
Barrow became president in 2017 after beating Jammeh at the polls, although Jammeh has to be forced out when he refused to accept the election results.
Jammeh is currently living in exile in Equatorial Guinea although there are signals the new administration in The Gambia is considering having him extradited back to face justice for his crimes.
The Gambian president has been working hard to restore the image of the country on the international scene since taking over.
Source: Africafeeds.com
