U.S. convicts first African for torture

Michael Sang Correa, a former Gambian death squad member, has made history, but for the wrong reasons.

He has become the first African, and indeed the first foreigner, to be convicted of torture under United States federal law.

Correa, 45, was found guilty in a U.S. court for his role in brutal crackdowns during the Yahya Jammeh dictatorship in The Gambia.

He was part of the notorious “Junglers,” an elite hit squad accused of silencing opponents, beating detainees, and torturing anyone seen as a threat to Jammeh’s rule.

The conviction, announced by the U.S. Justice Department, is a landmark because America’s torture statute, passed in 1994, has rarely been tested. Until now, it had only ever been used against Americans, most notably Chuckie Taylor, the U.S.-born son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, jailed in 2009 for similar crimes.

“This verdict sends a clear message: no matter where you commit torture, you cannot hide in the United States,” federal prosecutors said.

Correa fled The Gambia after Jammeh’s fall in 2017 and was arrested while living quietly in the U.S. His conviction is now sparking conversations across Africa about accountability, human rights, and whether the continent’s own courts have failed to deliver justice for such crimes.