The Senegalese government has shown compassion and a commitment to human rights in agreeing to resettle two Libyans detained by the United States government at Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said today.
“Senegal’s decision to welcome the two Libyans will help heal the harm caused by 14 years of unjust detention at Guantanamo,” said Laura Pitter, senior US national security counsel at Human Rights Watch. “Senegal has made an important humanitarian gesture by offering these men the chance to start a new life.”
The two detainees resettled to Senegal are Salem Abdul Salem Ghereby, 55, and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour Umar, approximately 44 years old. Both are Libyan nationals who were held for nearly 14 years at the Guantanamo detention facility without charge or trial, in violation of international law.
In 2009, an interagency task force determined that Ghereby did not pose a significant security threat to the US, thereby clearing him for release from Guantanamo. A different interagency body, a Periodic Review Board, cleared Abu Bakr in 2015. Both are alleged to have joined the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in the 1990s, an organization opposed to then-Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Years after the US detained Ghereby and Abu Bakr, the LIFG split into two factions, one of which was allegedly aligned with
