“When the whole place was engulfed in smoke, I had to use an escape route in the back of my house. With the help of God, I escaped the fire. But it could have been very serious because a gas bottle was there. And immediately as I left the house, the gas bottle exploded,” Sillah told Anadolu Agency.
“Part of deliberate attempts to control the way independent journalism was being conducted in the country”, what Sillah claims was an arson attack in 2004 led him to flee his native village of Jambur -- about 19 kilometers from Banjul -- and ended up in Ghana.
But today, as Sillah, who was arrested 11 times before he went into exile, speaks to Anadolu Agency, he has become the new director of the Gambia Radio and Television Services, a position to which he has been appointed from exile by the new government that has promised freedom of the press. “When we all heard that he [Jammeh] was already on a plane leaving the country, that moment of relief was unbelievable,” he said
He promised to reform the country's public broadcaster, the objective being to report divergent political views. Gambia’s former strongman Jammeh was renowned for his tough anti-media stance and has been accused of enforced disappearances and killings by human rights organizations.