"Doctor" Jammeh scapegoats gays again

Yahya Jammeh, the megalomaniac in charge of The Gambia, has reportedly threatened to execute practicing gays who are HIV positive. In 2007, Jammeh claimed to have cured Gambians of HIV and AIDS. So if "Doctor" Jammeh "cured" those afflicted with HIV, then how can there be anyone left for him to murder?

Gambian madman threatens to behead gays

Certainly a lot of attention has been paid to Robert Mugabe’s attempts to starve to death people in opposition strongholds as well as the more general terror tactics against those in engaging in the Re-Liberation Struggle.

But another lunatic seems to be flying under the radar.

Last year, Gambia’s dictator Yahya Jammeh descended into farce when he had the power to cure AIDS.

Jammeh’s rantings have taken a more sinister turn. Last week, the longtime military leader gave gays in the tiny nation 24 hours to leave the country. Those that remained, he said, risked being beheaded.

A spokesperson for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Council said that Jammeh’s ravings were "doubly disgraceful" because The Gambia is the host country for the African Commission on Human and People's Rights.

Is Gambia's strongman killing Ghanaians?

That's what The Accra Mail wonders. According to the paper, civil society organizations in Ghana have urged their country's president to cut ties with The Gambia.

This is in relation to the killing of 44 Ghanaians and other nationals in Gambia and other alleged serious human rights violations and media repression said to be orchestrated by President Jammeh of The Gambia.

The governments of Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, which also had their citizens killed, have been urged to also cut ties with The Gambia.

The group heard "first-hand accounts of gruesome human rights violations by the Gambian authorities, including the murder of 50 nationals of Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo".

Gambian fans in visa snag

The Gambian Daily Observer newspaper has an interesting piece on the visa fiasco faced by soccer fans in the country. Over 200 supporters hoping to see their national team play in the Under-20 World Cup in Canada but were denied visas by the Canadian embassy in Accra, Ghana.

Apparently the initial anger at the Canadians was misplaced. The Observer (which I presume is a state-run or ruling party newspaper due to sycophantic references to 'the benevolent Gambian leader, Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh') reports that the national Department of State for Youth, Sports and Religious Affairs bungled the situation by sending visa applicants and passports to Accra rather than to the consulate in Dakar, Senegal, as they'd been instructed by Canadian officials.