By: Adama Makasuba
Yusupha Mbye, a survivor of April 10\11 has said that he was shot on his spinal cord by the personnel’s of the Police Intervention Unit during the 2000 demonstration which he said caused him paralyzed.
Mr Mbye, 36, was testifying before the Truth Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) on 16th September 2019, which continued its public hearings on the April 10\11.
“I was shot on my back…just around my neck,” adding that he was taken to the hospital where he said to had spent days in coma.
He said he was taken to the death house when he was first taken to the hospital, adding that health officers there thought he was death, but that he was rescued by a nurse who realized that he was not death.
“When I was shot on my back, and while I was breathing the bullet moved to around my throat and struck there, which they later operated and removed,” he added.
He said he is parlayed from his neck to his toes, but he said he and Assan Suwareh and Sainey Senghore were taken to Egypt for treatment in 2000, which he added that their funding faced difficulties which the then government of the Gambia refused to sent them extra money for their treatment.
He said: “The treatment wasn’t complete; this is how I returned to the Gambia. The sad part of the issue was when our doctor wrote to the Gambia government for them to send money to us to complete our treatment, they didn’t reply but when he wrote to them for our return home they quickly replied.”
He said after his returned to The Gambia that he later went for further treatment in Scotland but said that he didn’t received any treatment except going for blood testing only once, adding that the then government did that deliberately that they were owing some money to Scotland which the money meant for his treatment was used as paying a debt.
“What I need now is rehabilitation. The rehabilitation would help me a lot because it will stop me from using the urine bag. I have been using the urine bag for 19 years, and I am tired now,” he said.