“I Cannot Go”: Eyewitness Recounts Giving Water to Omar Badjie Moments Before His Collapse

The inquest into the death of Omar Badjie—who died following an encounter with police on 26 September 2025—continued this week with the conclusion of testimony from the sixth witness, Majula Jammeh.

Jammeh delivered an emotional account of Omar Badjie’s final moments, describing his inability to stand, his desperate plea for water, and her intervention shortly before he collapsed and was removed by the police.

Resuming her testimony from the previous sitting, Jammeh described the scene at the gate of her compound where police had detained Omar. She told the court that officers were holding him while he sat on the ground and repeatedly asked him, “Will you go or not?”

According to her, Omar responded, “No, I cannot go,” several times.

Jammeh said Omar then expressed severe thirst. “Omar said to them, ‘I want to drink,’” she recounted. “They told him they didn’t have water and that he should think about his situation rather than asking for water.”

Concerned, she intervened. “I told them, ‘Let me give him water so that he can drink.’” She ran into her compound, fetched water, and handed it to the officers, who passed it on to Omar. He drank once, but according to Jammeh, “the second one he couldn’t swallow.” Omar then asked that the remaining water be poured over his head. After the officers did so, he reportedly said, “It is okay, or else all my clothes will be wet.”

Jammeh recalled that Omar then lay down, raised his head, and looked at her. She offered him words of comfort: “I told him, ‘My brother, I know you, but this world is not what it is. This world is just a few days. You should not have any problem with an authority.’”

She testified that police proceeded to search Omar, briefly removing his phone and money before returning them to his pocket. They forced him to sit up once more and asked again whether he would go. Omar replied, “I cannot go. I’m feeling dizzy.”

According to Jammeh, a plainclothes officer who had earlier beaten Omar then assaulted him again. “They pulled him up and sat him again. The police officer who was beating him slapped him again,” she said.

Omar lay down again, insisting he could not move. Jammeh testified that officers then lifted him, with one holding each arm and another holding his legs. His head was bent forward, and his hands were cuffed.

She said that along the way, the officers encountered a female police officer who advised them to remove the handcuffs because “they would disturb him.”

Principal Magistrate Anna O. Mendy questioned Jammeh about whether she could identify the officers involved. Jammeh said she did not know where they were from but recognized officers from the Mandinaring Police Station. When asked whether she could identify the individuals in a lineup, she replied, “No, I don’t think so. I cannot identify them, and I don’t know their names.”

Jammeh confirmed she knew Omar personally, as he worked at the mortuary in Mandinaring with her younger brother, Alieu Jammeh.

Asked what she believed caused his death, she responded, “I think what the police did to him—beat him.”

With no further evidence to provide, Principal Magistrate Anna O. Mendy discharged the witness and adjourned the inquest to Monday, 8 December 2025, for the testimony of the next witness.