Listening to Survivor Communities in the North Bank Region
Reflections from community dialogue circles in Kerewan and Barra, where survivors, local alkalolu, and women's groups gathered to discuss non-recurrence guarantees and decentralized access to transitional justice.
Post-TRRC Unit · Ministry of Justice, The Gambia
Over the past three weeks, our regional outreach team traveled across seven districts in the North Bank Region to conduct listening sessions with survivor families, village development committees, and traditional alkalolu. These grassroots engagements offer an indispensable reality check against high-level policy drafts formulated in Banjul.
In Kerewan, community elders emphasized that justice cannot remain confined to courtroom proceedings in the capital. For rural communities that lived through arbitrary arrests, illegal land seizures, and state-sanctioned intimidation, the promise of non-recurrence must translate into tangible protections: accountable local police, accessible land dispute resolution, and respectful state recognition.
Women survivors who attended our closed-door sessions spoke openly about the lingering social and financial repercussions of losing family breadwinners. Their message was unambiguous: reparations must combine livelihood restitution with accessible community health clinics capable of treating chronic ailments caused by past abuses.
As we compile our field observations for the PTU technical committee, these community voices serve as an essential reminder that transitional justice is measured not by bureaucratic milestones, but by the renewed sense of security and dignity felt in every Gambian village.
