A former beauty queen in The Gambia, Fatou “Toufah” Jallow, claims that she was raped by Gambia ex-President Yahya Jammeh.
A 23-year-old former beauty queen, Fatou “Toufah” Jallow, claims she was raped by ex-President Yahya Jammeh when he was still president. Jallow gave her testimony as part of a Human Rights Watch and Trial International report that details another alleged rape and sexual assault by Mr. Jammeh.
She claims she was raped in 2015 when she was 18 after she won a state-sponsored beauty pageant. Toufah claims Jammeh asked her to marry him months after the pageant.
Recounting the incident, she said in 2015, she was invited for a presidential ceremony but instead, she was taken to the then Gambia president Jammeh ‘s residence where she was raped. She claims he degraded her in every way he could. In her words, she said;
He rubbed his genitals in my face, pushed me down on my knees, pulled my dressed up and sodomised her. I was screaming for life and he injected me on my right arm right here, and i was fighting back. Thinking throughout the whole time my shame came from the fact that at some point i stopped fighting. I fled the country.
She reveals she will be taking him to court.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, another woman was raped by the ex-president in 2015. A third woman also claims she was sexually assaulted. The other two ladies chose to remain anonymous.
BBC claim they reached out to Mr. Jammeh, who now lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea, about the allegations but he did not respond.
However, a spokesman for his APRC party denied the rape accusations made against the former president, Yahya Jammeh.