In River Cess County, residents of Bethel Town are beginning to rebuild after a vigilante mob attack destroyed much of their community last month. But while new homes are taking shape, families say they are still struggling with hunger, lack of clean water, and fears of another attack. In this collaboration with Ok FM and…
By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives BETHEL, River Cess County — On a recent humid morning here, the sound of shovels breaking earth has returned for the first time since a mob burned nearly the entire community last month. This time, the digging is not for destruction — but for rebuilding. Workers and residents have begun…
A new survey shows 9 out of 10 Liberian women take antibiotics monthly after their period—often without prescriptions. Experts call the practice catastrophic, warning it fuels antibiotic resistance and threatens public health nationwide. Gloria Wleh reports in this social media Video. To read more about this story click this link: Liberia: Nine Out of Every…
By Gloria Wleh with New Narratives Summary: DUAZON, Margibi County — On a recent weekday, L. had just ended her four days of monthly menstruation. The next day the 18-year-old walked into a small drug store beside the main road here as she does every month. With no prescription, she asked the drug dispenser for…
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, New Narratives climate correspondent On the busy roads of this capital city, something is changing. Alongside the old pickup trucks and exhaust-spewing taxis, a quieter kind of vehicle has appeared: electric cars, motorcycles and three-wheeled tricycles that hum instead of roar. They charge on electricity instead of burning gasoline and leave…
The story follows Eriah Nahnie, a Liberian refugee detained in Massachusetts after arriving in America as a child. Despite raising a family and believing his asylum status protected him, he now faces removal to Liberia—a nation he has no ties to and barely recalls. His case highlights a broader pattern of Liberians being targeted under…
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, climate correspondent with New Narratives Summary Across rural communities in Liberia, rice paddies have fed families for generations and that have also, for generations, never quite been enough. Fields that yield barely a ton per hectare. Families that import nearly every grain they eat. A country, for more than two decades, has…
More than 50 victims of human trafficking in Liberia say they were promised jobsabroad—but instead ended up trapped, abused, and extorted.Now, months after coming forward, they say justice is slipping away.Their case promised to bethe biggest win against criminals who are profiting from fraudulent promises of sending peopleoverseas for jobs, in a business known by…
By Nukanah Kollie with New Narratives Summary: BARWOR QUARTER, Bong County—It’s just past midnight here in one of Gbarnga’s oldest and most crowded neighborhoods, as a small group of men move quietly through narrow alleys. Flashlights slice through the darkness. A whistle pierces the humid air. Seven years ago, residents say, few people dared walk…
By Anthony Stephens and New Narratives editors It was Kayla’s birthday. She was putting her baby son into his car seat, her daughter climbing into the back, her fiancé Eriah Nahnie behind the wheel. It was just after 8 in the morning — a routine school run on a cold winter’s day in United States…
A mass escape from a trafficking ring handed prosecutors everything they needed for Liberia’s biggest trafficking conviction. 51 victims say a bribe is about to set their traffickers free By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent and New Narratives editors On a morning last October, more than 50 women and men walked into Paynesville magistrates’ court…
By Augusta S. Lafalay with New Narratives Summary: BARNESVILLE ESTATE, Montserrado County— Sarah Sackor and her classmates were excited the day in September when a computer teacher told their 12th-grade class early that they would finally begin internet lessons. For years, “computer class” had been mostly theory — copying notes from textbooks. Most students at…
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, climate correspondent with New Narratives Summary Liberians are paying more to travel, eat and keep the lights on as conflict in the Middle East pushes global oil prices above $US100 a barrel for the first time in years, exposing the country’s dependence on imported fuel to the world’s most volatile markets….
Fear of rising crime has been on the minds of many Liberians. But the truth is crime in the country is dropping. That’s particularly true in Bong County which has seen one of the largest drops in community crime anywhere in the country.Police records show that in the seven years to 2023, reported crimes fell…
By Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives Summary: Six years ago, former president George Weah won praise for declaring rape a national emergency. He promised a tougher response to sexual and gender-based violence. But little real change was evident, and the numbers kept rising. In 2024, the number of cases of rape, domestic violence, and other…
By Joyclyn Wea and Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon with New Narratives Summary: ITI VILLAGE, River Cess County -When the rain came hard in 2024, residents here in this village in the southern part of the county described a disaster: floodwaters swallowed roads, farms, and homes, stranding people and pushing families into makeshift shelters. In the same…
More than one million Liberian farmers grow the food that feeds the country, but many of them do not know the real market prices of what they produce. Without this information, farmers often sell their crops at very low prices to middlemen who later make big profits, leaving farming families struggling to survive. Without access…
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives The United States Congress passed the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday. The Senate sharply reduced a controversial tax on remittances, money sent abroad by immigrants from an initial 5 percent proposal to 3.5 percent, and finally to 1 percent, easing the burden…
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives As civil society organizations intensify calls for debt cancellation and fiscal reform, the Liberian government has defended what it calls a deliberate effort to rebuild trust with global lenders. Alice E. Williams, assistant minister for External Resources and Debt Management at the Ministry of Finance, acknowledged the country’s historic…
A Liberian civil war survivor says the deportation of former LURD commander Mayama Sesay, also known as “Black Diamond,” has left him fearing for his safety, Anthony Stephens reports in this social media video. To read more about this story click this link: https://tinyurl.com/3p5w4v9p This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating…
By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives ZAMMIE TOWN, River Cess – It is not yet midday and Odel Morris is already out of water. Most of the customers of her business, selling tea, coffee and snacks here in this rural part of the county are leaving, without being served. Morris says she has been doing for…
