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….
Featured Stories
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…
U.S. Court Sentences Gambian Death Squad Member To More Than 67 Years for Torture
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Summary: A U.S. federal court Friday sentenced a former member of The Gambia’s feared paramilitary unit to more than 67 years in prison for acts of torture carried out under the dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh. Michael Sang Correa, 46, was sentenced by Senior Judge Christine M….
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…
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…
‘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…
“We’re Failing a Generation,” Experts Say President Boakai’s Drug War Lacks Urgency as Generation Slips Through the Cracks
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. The Swedish Embassy provided funding, but the founder had no say in the story’s content….
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…
Weekend Surges Threaten Sinkor Properties as Coastal Erosion Crisis Deepens
Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives Summary · Ocean surges destroy fences along Liberia’s Sinkor coastline, with UN projections warning that 230,000 Liberians face losing their homes to rising seas by 2100 · Stark inequality emerges as former President George Weah’s residence stands protected by boulder barriers while neighboring properties are unprotected · Critical infrastructure is…
Economy Deeply Hit by Aid Cuts as Jobs Are Lost and Local Businesses See Huge Drop in Income
By Anthony Stephens and Allison Hunter with New Narratives Summary: Caroline Armah is exactly the sort of person the development world has tried to champion. The 33-year-old entrepreneur is building a business solving one of the most fundamental problems Liberia faces: affordable, childhood nutrition. Armah’s business Calaw Foodssells a nutritional supplement made of finely ground…
Liberia’s New Tourism Authority Wants a Piece of West Africa’s Multi-Billion Dollar Tourism Sector But Challenges Abound
By Aria Deemie and Jake Duffy with New Narratives Summary: PAYNESVILLE, Montserrado – On a warm Saturday afternoon, Chris Onanuga, Liberia’s newly appointed presidential envoy for tourism, mingles with young people at a recreation day in Voka Mission. Some kick a football; others seek shade beneath sprawling trees. To Onanuga, the scene is something more…
Liberia Faces Persistent Human Rights Issues According to Latest US Human Rights Report
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives Despite a raft of government reforms and international partnerships, Liberia continues to face serious human rights challenges, according to the 2024 U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices released this week. The report found there were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Liberia…
Conservationists Raise Alarm as “Eco-guards” Resume Hunting in Nimba Reserve
By Jerome Saye with New Narratives Summary: GBOBAYEE TOWN, Nimba County – It is evening here as Paul Flomo hangs his single barrel shot gun over his shoulder and heads into the forest to hunt. Not so long ago it was Paul’s job to stop hunting in this ecologically rich part of the Nimba Mountain…
After Years of Delay, Sea Wall Funded by Global Climate Financing Set to Begin Construction as 1000 Community Members Await Relocation
By Joyclyn Wea, senior correspondent with New Narratives with photography by Allison Hunter WEST POINT, Monrovia — As heavy rains batter the coast, fear thickens in West Point. Five years ago a storm surge took the home Sarah Gary’s father built when she was a child. Now Gary lives in a house just feet from the Atlantic’s…
As Rural Healthcare Struggles, One Lofa Entrepreneur Steps Up to Bridge the Gap
By James Papy Kwabo Jr. and Peter Kollie with Alternate Youth Radio and New Narratives ZORZOR, Lofa County – In a region where access to essential medicine can determine whether someone lives or dies, one young nurse is quietly building a health movement from the ground up. Despite the lack of support for entrepreneurs in…
As “Lifestyle” Diseases Surge, Ganta Hospital Leads Fight Against Diabetes
By Tetee Gebro with New Narratives GANTA, Nimba County — McArthur Davis was 18 when doctors told him to burn his clothes to cure what they thought was an infection. His vision was failing, sores covered his body, and though clinic after clinic had treated him, he never got better. It wasn’t until he reached…
Climate Change Is Making Life Harder For All Farmers – For Ghana’s Farmers With Disabilities It Can Mean Devastation
By Jennifer Ambolley Summary: By Jennifer Ambolley BALUNGO, Upper East Region –Asoke Douglas Aganawini rises with the sun each day in this remote community in the far northern part of the country. Climate change has pummeled farmers here with unpredictable rainfall and higher temperatures. But for Asoke it’s been particularly hard. The 45-year-old began losing…
No Christmas Cheer For Growing Number of Liberians in Poverty
By Fatu Kamara with New Narratives TODEE DISTRICT, Montserrado County – For Christian Liberians Christmas is normally a period of smiles, joy and exchange of gifts with friends and loved ones. But as more Liberians fall below the poverty line, for many, that is not their experience this year. This year’s Christmas has brought more…
Children Forced Out of School and into Labor as Poverty Tightens Grip on Rural Liberia
By Joseph Titus Yekeryan with New Narratives SALALA, Bong County- The midday sun beats down here as 10-year-old Nulee runs from one vehicle to another with plastic sachets of cold-water urging passengers to buy. “Cold water, cold water here! Make your chest cold!” he calls out in a high-pitched voice. His childhood, once filled with…