Fatou Jallow

Fatou A. "Toufah" Jallow (born April 19, 1996 in Soma ) is a Gambian beauty queen. She became known in 2014 for her accusations of rape and sexual harassment against Gambian President Yahya Jammeh. She attended Nusrat Senior Secondary School up through 12th grade. At this time she was 18 years old.

In September 2014 she started a teacher training course at The Gambia College in Brikama.

According to a story in Kibaroo News in June 2015, she went missing for several weeks after being invited to the State House in Banjul. In the period after the competition, Jammeh was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing her and offering her gifts. According to the report, she was brought to Jammeh several times against her will. He had publicly announced several times that he wanted to marry Jallow, a proposal she refused. According to her statement, she received 50,000 Dalasi, and later another 200,000 Dalasi from him. A driver at the time also denied Jallow's allegations of rape.

The Gambian Justice Minister and Attorney General, Abubacarr Tambadou, and Salieu Taal, President of the Gambia Bar Association (GBA), commended Jallow for her courage in breaking her silence, and encouraged other victims of rape to speak out, in the hope that they would provide the basis for more charges to be filed against Jammeh. Women's rights organization Female Lawyers Association Gambia (FLAG) joined them in this view. Further accusations against high-ranking politicians were reported in the following days.

In September 2019, the APRC's interim leader, Fabakary Jatta, called the allegations a lie, saying that Jallow "should even be thankful to ex-president Jammeh for the monetary support", and denounced the allegations as attempts to tarnish Jammeh's image. Jallow rejected this statement as unsubstantiated attention-seeking, and noted that she had not accused the APRC as a party, but Jammeh personally, and that the APRC should not speak for him.

On October 31, 2019, Jallow testified before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission to come to terms with Jammeh's reign, and repeated and clarified her accusations. ''