The Gambia’s Attorney General and minister for Justice, Abubacarr Marie “Ba” Tambadou is reported to have tendered his resignation to President Adama Barrow.
It is not clear why Mr Tambadou who dedicating his time in office to bring perpetrators of rights abuses to book both in the Gambia is stepping aside from the position he has held since February 2017.
He previously worked as a lawyer at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, serving as special assistant to the Prosecutor from 2012 to 2016.
The online Gambian based Kerr Fatu newspaper, which first reported the story said he will be commencing a new job soon oversees.
Born on 12 December 1972 in Banjul to Alhaji Marie Tambadou , Tambadou has 18 siblings. He attended Saint Augustine’s High School from 1987 to 1992.
He studied an LLB in law at the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom from From 1994 to 1997, and in 1999 was called to the bar as a barrister-at-law at Lincoln’s Inn. From 2001 to 2002, he completed an LLM in international human rights law at SOAS, University of London.
Tambadou first worked as a public prosecutor at the Gambian Ministry of Justice from 1997 to 1999, ensuring national prosecution of local crimes. He then worked as state counsel from 1999 to 2000, with supervisory responsibilities over public prosecutors. He then went into private legal practice, working at his brother’s law firm, Sheriff M. Tambadou Law Chambers, in Banjul from 2000 to 2003, with a particular focus on human rights law.
In 2003, he left the Gambia to work at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, as an associate legal officer, a position he held from 2003 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he worked as a trial attorney, where he was responsible for prosecuting violations of international human rights law in Rwanda. He secured the prosecution of four individuals, including former Rwandan army general Augustin Bizimungu.
In 2008, he became an appeals counsel and handled a number of cases on appeal, including The Prosecutor vs Augustin Bizimungu and The Prosecutor vs Théoneste Bagosora. For a time, he acted as officer-in-charge in the absence of the senior appeals counsel.
In 2012, he became special assistant to the prosecutor, a role that included drafting papers and policy, leading briefings, and acting as chief of staff for the prosecutor’s immediate office. The prosecutor since 2003 has been former Gambian justice minister Hassan Bubacarr Jallow. Tambadou left the court in 2016 after it closed.
