MONROVIA – Waste plastic is becoming a scourge around the world but it is especially true here in Liberia’s capital city and its satellite sister, Paynesville. Discarded plastic is choking waterways, blocking drains, killing fish, and leaching harmful chemicals into the water and soil. By Tina S. Mehnpaine, with New Narratives With poor or limited waste management…
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Liberia Drowning in Plastic Pollution
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of its Land Rights and Climate Reporting project. Funding was provided by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and the American Jewish World Service….
Liberia’s Fragile Wetlands are in Crisis
Across the world people are experiencing different impacts from rising global temperatures. Governments are racing to protect natural environments that will help stop the worst changes.But with Liberia’s fast growing population, more and more people are moving to coastal cities, especially Monrovia, looking for means of survival.That is putting a pressure on one of Liberia’s…
Buchanan Seaside Communities Beg for Rock Wall to Protect Them from the Sea
Coastal erosion caused by climate-induced rises in sea levels and intense tropical storms have already destroyed the homes of hundreds of Liberian families and put critical fisheries at risk. Nine of the country’s fifteen counties sit along the sea coast putting 60 per cent of the population at threat and causing tens of millions of…
New Farming Approach is Luring Farmers Out of the Forest
As the changing climate impacts more and more people worldwide, there are renewed efforts to protect the planet’s forests. Trees soak up the carbon that is the worst factor in causing climate change. Liberia’s forest is one of the largest remaining. But millions of Liberians rely on the forest’s bounty for their survival. As the…
Buchanan Seaside Communities Beg for Rock Wall
BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – Forty years ago Atlantic Street was one of this port city’s busiest streets, humming with stores and chop shops. Today it is almost deserted. The encroaching shoreline has swallowed up structures and is threatening to take out the street itself. Bobby Gibson’s father used to run a popular store known as Gibson…
Finnish Court Releases Sierra Leonean Rebel Leader Gibril Massaquoi Ahead of Verdict
Sierra Leonean rebel leader, Gibril Massaquoi, who is standing trial in Finland for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Liberia, has been released from prison ahead of the verdict in his case, expected in coming months. By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives Massaquoi’s charges include rape, ritual murder and recruitment of child soldiers,…
Massaquoi Lawyer Confident of Acquittal in War Crimes Trial
MONROVIA, Liberia – The lawyer for accused war criminal Gibril Massaquoi’s says he is confident of his client will be acquitted. Speaking outside the court at the start of week two of the court’s unexpected return to Liberia, Kaarle Gummerus did not accept this reporter’s invitation to make a full-throated claim of Massaquoi’s innocence, but he…
Witness: Massaquoi Escaped Hours Before Arrest by Taylor
By Mae Azango Senior Justice Correspondent with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – A witness at the ongoing war crimes trial of ex-Sierra Leonean rebel leader Gibril Massaquoi has told the Finnish court hearing the case that then Liberian President Charles Taylor heard that Massaquoi was a spy and ordered his arrest. Massaquoi was given warning…
‘STABBED AND BEATEN TO DEATH’ – Witness Testifies Taylor Ordered Brutal Murder of RUF Leader Bockarie
“Taylor sent Benjamin Yeaten to Ganta to put things under control… Yeaten’s deputy was the first that stabbed Bockarie on the back. He escaped in a cocoa farm but was overpowered and beaten to death.” – Witness X5 By Gerald C. Koinyeneh with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – A witness testifying before a Finnish Court in the…
More Witnesses Put Massaquoi in Monrovia When Under UN-Witness Protection in Sierra Leone
Mae Azango Senior Justice correspondent with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia – The trial of Gibril Massaquoi has continued to focus on the central explosive question of whether the defendant escaped UN witness protection in Freetown in June-August 2003 to commit war crimes in neighboring Liberia. Massaquoi was under witness protection for his role informing on ex-combatants…
Victims Angry as Another Accused Liberian Warlord- Melvin Sogbandi- Dies Without Facing Justice
Death has taken another of the 100 alleged perpetrators that Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended face trial for their crimes during the Civil war.Melvin Sogbandi died in a Monrovia hospital in January at age 53. Sogbandi led “Strike Force Marine,” one of the deadliest divisions of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia ….
NPFL General on TRC “Most Notorious” List Dies; Angry Victims Say He Escaped Justice
***CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story carried an image of a family member of Melvin Sogbandi. FrontPage Africa and New Narratives regret the error *** By Eric Opa Doue, Senior New Narratives Justice Reporter JUAH TOWN, Grand Bassa – James Diggs broke down in tears when he heard the news of the death of Melvin Sogbandi….
Rescued Girls Describe Female Genital Cutting; Mothers Pursue Justice
The three girls, all high school students, say they were abducted by traditional leaders in September and taken by force to the Sande without the consent of their parents. They spent six terrifying weeks at the Bush school before their desperate mothers finally discovered their location and rescued them….
One Year Since President Weah Declared Rape a National Emergency Activists Say Nothing Has Changed
MONROVIA – It was a year ago that President George Weah declared rape a national emergency. His announcement came in response to a crime that shocked the nation: a fifteen-year-old boy had raped a three-year-old girl, using a razor blade to commit the crime. That followed years of cries by women activists for governments to…
Thomas Dismisses Ruling Against Him
It was one of the most shocking events of the Liberian civil war. In April 1900 troops with then-President Samuel Doe’s Special Anti-Terrorist Unit shot and hacked to death 600 people including babies taking refuge in Monrovia’s St Peters Lutheran Church. Images of the carnage were broadcast around the world. The massacre kicked off a…
LGBTQ Liberian Fired From High Profile US Job
One of the most high-profile Liberians in the United States has lost his job after being caught up in the sexual harassment scandal that took down New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Alphonso David, 50, was the head of the Human Rights Campaign, the most powerful group lobbying for the rights of LGBTQ Americans, until last…
Amid Diplomatic Dispute, Monrovians Beg For Relief From Trash Crisis
By Tina S. Mehnpaine for News Public Trust BUZZI QUARTER, Monrovia – As the growing waste and sanitation problem in Monrovia became part of a diplomatic dispute this month, people in slum communities said they didn’t care who solved the problem as long as they get some relief from what many say is now a major…
Omega Land Crisis: Evicted Residents Mount Pressure for Resettlement
For 16 years Augustus Sibley has been proud of the small lot he managed to buy here in 2006 in the Paynesville area on the outskirts of Monrovia, and the three-bedroom house he built for himself and his family. But today the plot is a source of pain for the 62-year-old who says the government…
Nimba Clans Square Off Over Customary Land Title Claims
TAPPITA DISTRICT, Nimba County – This disarmingly peaceful forest area in Liberia’s far north Tappita District has been the scene of conflict of one form or another for decades. But since 2014 it had enjoyed some peace as two clans here, supported by a US-backed project known by the acronym PROSPER, agreed on a boundary line…
Women Farmers Made Destitute by Pandemic
MONROVIA – Weatta Gbelly has seen hardship in her 35 years but nothing prepared her for the Covid-19 pandemic. Ms. Gbelly has never had the virus, neither does she know anyone who has, but she has suffered just the same. By Mae Azango, Senior Land Rights Correspondent with New Narratives Ms. Gbelly is a mother of…