Liberia: Martina Johnson, Warlord Charles Taylor Ally, Likely to Face Trial in Belgium

Summary: By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Martina Johnson, one of the most powerful commanders of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front for Liberia (NPFL) rebel group, is expected to go on trial in Belgium next year for atrocities allegedly committed during Liberia’s first civil war. A court is considering evidence gathered during…

Liberia: Monrovia’s Citizens Beg for Quiet as Environment Protection Authority Promises Crackdown on Noise Pollution

By Aria Deemie, environmental reporter with New Narratives At 3 a.m. Richedna Kpanneh Tobii finally opened her books. The 21-year-old university student had learned that her densely populated neighborhood of Lakpazee, with more than 160,000 people, was only quiet enough for her to study in the middle of the night. Video clubs blasted matches past midnight….

Liberia: Victims of LURD Rebel General ‘K1’ Say Five-Year U.S. Sentence Is an Insult to His Heinous Crimes and Demand He Is Tried in War Crimes Court.

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, senior correspondent with New Narratives Summary: For more than two decades, they lived in silence, haunted by the war. In January, seventeen Liberians summoned the courage to travel to the U.S. court in Philadelphia and testify against one of the most feared rebel commanders of Liberia’s second civil war: Laye Sekou…

National ID Chaos: Frustration Grows as Banking Access and Other Services Denied Amid Enrollment Backlog. World Bank Funding For More Centers On Hold Because of Government Debt

By Tetee Gebro and Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives RED LIGHT, Monrovia – Rick Scott arrived at the National Identification Registry center here on a recent morning at 5 a.m., joining a line of hopeful citizens in the predawn darkness. By evening, the 54-year-old businessman returned home empty-handed for the fourth time in a week,…

Liberia: Can Whistleblower Boxes Help Solve Liberia’s Corruption Problem? The Anti-Corruption Commission Thinks So

By Joyclyn Wea, senior correspondent with New Narratives Summary: OLD ROAD, Monrovia – The wooden box bolted to the wall at the Ministry of Education looks ordinary enough. But according to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, the country’s independent corruption watchdog, this simple contraption could be a game-changer in the country’s long fight against entrenched corruption….

Liberia: As Drug Crisis Grows Medical Experts Demand Amateur Rehabilitation Centers Be Shut Down As Desperate Families Drain Savings on Treatment That Fails to Deliver

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, senior reporter with New Narratives NEW JERUSALEM, Montserrado- When R. saw her son emerge drug-free after five months in a rehabilitation center in 2022, she thought her long nightmare had ended. The beauty salon owner had drained her savings—over $LD50,000 ($US270) to pay for the 33-year-old’s treatment at three centers over…

Liberia: Advocates Demand Anti-Corruption Court Be Removed From Mandate of Office of The War Crimes Court Saying It Is a Distraction

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Summary: Leading justice advocates are urging the government of President Joseph Boakai to make the creation of a war and economic crimes court its top priority and remove the proposed anti-corruption court from the mandate of the Office of the War and Economics Crimes Court, the…

Liberia: As Climate Change Drives More Farmers Into the Forests Ambitious Boakai Forestry Sector Reform Is Yet to Help Local Communities

By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives KANGBO TOWN, River Cess— On a hot morning in this forest-fringed village of Gborgar Town deep in south-central Liberia, Marthaline Gbar sits hunched outside her zinc-roofed home, stirring a pot of simmering cassava leaves. The pot, barely half full, was meant to stretch across four children aged 5…

Liberia: ‘I Smile in Public and Die Inside’; New Mothers Suffer Alone With A Condition That Devastates Families

By Augusta S. Lafalay with New Narratives Summary: · Liberian mothers face a hidden postpartum depression crisis, with cultural stigma, spiritual beliefs, and lack of diagnosis leaving many to suffer in silence. · Experts warn that inadequate screening and minimal funding are undermining maternal mental health, destabilizing families and worsening outcomes for children. · Survivors…

Liberia: New Report Recommends Holistic Approach to  Drug Crisis; Calls for Joint Taskforce   Against Drug Trafficking In The Mano River Area

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon with New Narratives Liberia is facing a full-blown drug crisis according to a new report that finds the reasons for the crisis are rooted in poverty, failures of post war justice, unemployment and a growing regional drug trade. The report, the first to look at the reasons for the growing problem,…

Report Confirms Weah Government Failure to Fund Coastal Defense Project Delayed Progress for Years Costing Homes and Livelihoods

By Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives WEST POINT, Monrovia-When the sea turns rough, Elizabeth Gray and her family have nowhere to run. Water floods through their home in this low-lying informal settlement, forcing her three children to relieve themselves indoors while waves crash just meters from their door. As this year’s rainy season gets underway,…

“We’re Failing a Generation,” Experts Say President Boakai’s Drug War Lacks Urgency as Generation Slips Through the Cracks

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, senior reporter with New Narratives Mount Barclay, Johnsonville —Inside a fenced compound lined with barbed wire Jakuba Kamara sits quietly among dozens of recovering youths once gripped by drug addiction. After six months at this rehabilitation center Kamara reflects on the harrowing life he left behind. The 42-year-old remembers the stench…