ADAMA BARROW

Gambia’s government is setting up a special prosecutor’s office to investigate for severe human rights violations and potentially charge former dictator Yahya Jammeh, who fled into exile in 2017 after 22 years in power.

The long-awaited report recommends that a special international court be set up to try Jammeh and others in West Africa, but outside of Gambia. Jammeh, who ruled Gambia for 22 years, lost the 2016 presidential election, but he refused to concede defeat to Barrow. The truth commission was mandated to establish an impartial historical record of abuses committed from July 1994 to January 2017, when Jammeh fled the country. Testimonies made by perpetrators before the truth commission confirmed that some killings were done at Jammeh's direction. The truth commission report also said that Jammeh had raped women including Fatou Jallow, who later testified before the truth commission and published a book earlier this year about her ordeal.

BANJUL, Gambia — (AP) — Gambia’s President Adama Barrow has secured his re-election with a comfortable margin over his opposition in a vote that set the bar for a new chapter in the small West African nation’s democracy. Barrow won about 53% of the vote in Saturday's election, according to results from the Independent Election Commission announced Sunday. He easily beat out his main contender Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party who received about 28% of the vote. Barrow emerged victorious in 2016 as the candidate for an opposition coalition that tested the 22-year rule of Jammeh. The other week, the commission handed its 17-volume report to President Barrow, urging him to ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations are prosecuted.

Gambia’s President Adama Barrow has secured his re-election with a comfortable margin over his opposition in a vote that set the bar for a new chapter in the small West African nation’s democracy.

Election officials in the West African nation of Gambia have started counting marble votes after polls closed for the first presidential election in decades that does not include former dictator Yahya Jammeh as a candidate.

Gambians are getting ready to vote in a historic election that won't have former dictator Yahya Jammeh on the ballot.

West African leaders have suspended Mali from their regional bloc over what they say amounted to a coup last week.