From 1994, when Yahya Jammeh came to power in a bloodless coup, The Gambia lived in fear as the country plunged into dictatorship. For 22 years, all Gambians suffered from Jammeh's rule – directly or indirectly – as torture, massacres by death squads, extrajudicial executions, rape and forced disappearances took place. Journalists and the opposition were silenced. Jammeh withdrew his country from the Commonwealth and began the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, while transforming The Gambia into an Islamic Republic.