Gambians must not forget the atrocities committed by President Jammeh’s regime and demand that the perpetrators of crimes be brought to justice. The government of President Barrow should relentlessly pursue and reclaim all the ill-gotten wealth accumulated by Jammeh’s family and its cronies. Any call for unity, reconciliation and forgiveness will be meaningless without truth and justice.

Without the courage and determination of the Gambian people, it is unimaginable that dictator Yahya Jammeh could have been forced out of power at the ballot box and into exile. The Gambia now does feel like quite a different country to the one many oppressed citizens always knew. No effort should be spared to consolidate the gains of democracy for the good of the people.

Now that the Gambian story has been put back on the shelf, with everyone waiting to see whether President Adama Barrow will run an administration that will prove worthy of the amount of words expended on its emergence, I feel I can tell my story of The Gambia.

The case of Augusto Pinochet illustrates that international law has fundamentally changed to make it difficult for the perpetrators of international crimes to escape justice by hiding in safe havens. Individual criminal acts cannot be attributable to an impersonate state for the purpose of absolving one from criminal liability. It is therefore incumbent upon the new government of The Gambia to take all measures necessary to deliver justice for the victims of crimes committed by former ruler Jammeh.

The West African regional bloc’s no-nonsense stand against former Gambian despot Yahya Jammeh is admirable. But there are a few other places where ECOWAS has not performed well. For one, the bloc needs to devise ways by which citizens of a misruled nation can get back their money from a fleeing tyrant – and justice.