Editing Yahya Jammeh (section)

===Human rights abuses===
Human Rights Watch found that the Gambian security services most frequently implicated in abuses were the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the paramilitary “Jungulers,” and the Serious Crimes Unit and the Police Intervention Unit of the Gambian Police Force. The Jungulers, an unofficial unit of up to 40 personnel largely drawn from the Presidential Guard, was most frequently implicated in serious abuses, carrying out the most egregious crimes,notable among them was ordering the killing of about 50 West African migrants in 2005 The victims included 44 Ghanaians, 10 Nigerians, two Senegalese, three Ivoirians and one Togolese, who were killed because the security forces feared they were mercenaries coming to try to oust Jammeh.

On 10 and 11 April 2000, the government was accused of the killing of 14 students and a journalist during a student demonstration to protest the death of a student in The Gambia. Jammeh was accused of ordering the shooting of the students, but the government denied the allegations. A government commission of inquiry reportedly concluded that the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) officers were "largely responsible" for many of the deaths and other injuries. The commission also said that five soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Battalion were responsible for the deaths of two students at Brikama. The government stated that the report implicated several PIU officers in the students' deaths and injuries, but those responsible were not prosecuted.
[[File:Jammeh Dictatorship.jpg|thumb|Victims of the Regime]]
The journalist [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deyda_Hydara Deyda Hydara] was an advocate of press freedom and a fierce critic of the government of then President Yahya Jammeh, who was openly hostile to Gambian journalists and the media, the Gambia passed two new media laws. One, the Criminal Code Bill 2004, allowed prison terms for defamation and sedition; the other, the Newspaper  Bill 2004, required newspaper owners to purchase expensive operating licenses, registering their homes as security. Hydara announced his intent to challenge these laws, but on December 16, was assassinated by an unknown gunman while driving home from work in Banjul. Two of his colleagues were also injured. Over the years, the Gambian government was the target of much criticism for its failure to properly field an investigation and also for intimidating those who made such criticisms. Hydara's family filed a lawsuit against the government for negligence, and an ECOWAS court ruled in favour of the family in 2014, awarding them $60,000 in damages and legal fees, although the government has not yet complied with the ruling. His murder remains unsolved, although in May 2017 (after Adama Barrow replaced Yahya Jammeh as President), arrest warrants were issued for two army officers as suspects.
Newspaper reports list dozens of individuals who have disappeared after being picked up by men in plain-clothes, and others who have languished under indefinite detention for months or years without charge or trial. Furthermore, in July 2006, [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebrima_Manneh Ebrima Manneh] of The Daily Observer was arrested by state security after attempting to publish a BBC report critical of Jammeh. His arrest was witnessed by his coworkers, report Mahheh dies in 2008.The Gambian government refuses to divulge the precise reason for his arrest; however, Manneh’s detention is likely related to his attempt to republish a BBC News article that traces the source of then-President Yanya Jammeh’s power to a 1994 coup.[[File:Musa Saidykhan torture signals.jpg|thumb|The journalist Musa Saidykhan torture signals]]
Information on Manneh’s current condition is limited. According to the last available information, however, he suffers from grave health problems. Manneh has been held in solitary confinement in dehumanizing conditions. He is also at serious risk of being tortured. According to the U.S. State Department, Gambian security forces torture defendants with “electrocution, cigarette burns, plastic bags held over people’s heads, knife wounds, cold water treatments, and threats of being shot.”

Organizations worldwide have condemned Manneh’s unjust detention. Amnesty International labeled Manneh a prisoner of conscience. The Media Foundation of West Africa filed a petition on Manneh’s behalf before the Community Court of Justice (CCJ) of the Economic Community of West African States. On June 5, 2008, the CCJ issued a judgment declaring Manneh’s detention to be in violation of international law. Under the binding order, The Gambia must release Manneh and pay $100,000 in damages to his relatives. The Gambian government, which did not defend itself in the CCJ proceedings, only complied with the judgment in 2018.
The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court ordered the Gambia government to produce one journalist who had disappeared. In April 2016, at least 50 people were arrested during a demonstration, and there were fears that Solo Sandeng, an opposition politician, died alongside two others while being held in detention. In July 2016, a Gambian opposition leader and another 18 people were sentenced to three years in jail for participation in the April demonstration. A Gambian diplomat publicly denied that Solo Sandeng had died in custody.

In March 2009 Amnesty International reported that up to 1,000 Gambians had been abducted by government-sponsored "witch doctors" on charges of witchcraft, and taken to government detention centres where they were forced to drink poisonous hallucinogenic substances. On 21 May 2009, The New York Times reported that the alleged witch-hunting campaign had been sparked by the President Yahya Jammeh, who believed that the death of his aunt earlier that year could be attributed to witchcraft, the real reason could be due to the fact that president of Guinea-Bissau [[Nino Vieira|João Bernardo Vieira]], a close friend of the Gambian satrap was bloodylly murdered, Jammeh was horrified to share a possiblly fate similar to that of his counterpart and friend.