A former Gambian brigadier general suspected of being a member of a death squad during ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh's brutal rule has been found dead in prison, the army said Monday.
Bora Colley is alleged to have belonged to a paramilitary unit known as the "Junglers" that has long been accused of extrajudicial killings and torture by the United Nations and rights groups.
He was jailed in August when he returned to Gambia after eight years in exile as the country's Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) recommended his prosecution for "the killing and torture of victims in various locations," the army said.
Colley fled after Jammeh was forced to leave the west African country in 2017 and spent his exile in Africa and the Middle East.
The army said Colley required "continuous medical monitoring, which was provided by the state. Despite these efforts, he succumbed to his medical condition" on Sunday.
It said an inquest had been ordered into his death.
The Gambian government in 2022 endorsed the recommendations of the TRRC that looked into atrocities perpetrated under Jammeh, with authorities agreeing to prosecute 70 people, including the former president, who came to power after a 1994 coup.
Jammeh, whose 22-year rule was marked by numerous human rights violations, lost a presidential election in December 2016 to opposition leader Adama Barrow.
He fled the country in January 2017 for Equatorial Guinea, where he finally conceded and handed over power.