By Anthony Stephens, Senior Correspondent with New Narratives PELEBO TOWN, Maryland County—Alvin sits under the shade of a mango tree outside a health clinic here coming to terms with the news he has just received. Though he had barely heard of Donald Trump before now, Alvin has just learned that the American president, coming into…
By Anthony Stephens With New Narratives In one of its first moves the Trump administration has frozen all government assistance programs across the world for 90 days. Though much remains unclear, the new administration has indicated most of those programs – funded by USAID and the State Department – will be shuttered. Liberia is not…
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives Leading human rights advocates have condemned President Joseph Boakai’s decision to commission Lewis Brown, a former national security adviser to Charles Taylor, as Liberia’s ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Brown was recommended for prosecution by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and could be one of those prosecuted…
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives Beth Van Schaack, US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice in the Biden administration has left the post as the second Trump administration took power on Monday. In a farewell message Ambassador Van Schaack called her work in Liberia, The Gambia and other countries “impactful,” and applauded the human…
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives The US Trial of accused Liberian warlord, Laye Sekou Camara, alias “K-1” or “Dragon Master” has been called off after he pleaded guilty to criminal immigration fraud charges. A former commander of a rebel group, Mr. Camara, 46, was due to go on trial on January 21st in a US…
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MAMBA POINT, Liberia— Two months after the appointment of Dr. Jallah Barbu as the second head of Liberia’s Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court, the government has finally released $368,000 funding for Dr. Barbu and his team which has been working without pay or operations funding since…
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives ONE UN HOUSE, Liberia—A United Nations expert has warned that poverty and equality are high among “children, women and girls” in Liberia and “are drivers” of human trafficking. Madam Siobhán Mullally, the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, said the issues were also fueling “sexual exploitation” among children “in rural and hard…
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MAMBA POINT, Monrovia—The Office of Liberia’s War and Economic Crimes Courts is facing eviction in from its rental space as the ongoing battle with government for funding reaches a crisis point. Dr. Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office, made the disclosure to Front Page Africa/New Narratives as he…
By New Narratives justice correspondents Yankuba Jallow in The Gambia and Anthony Stephens in Liberia. In a potential precedent for Liberia’s transitional justice process, Ecowas, West Africa’s regional bloc, has finally approved The Gambia’s request to establish a Special Tribunal to try alleged crimes committed during the military dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh whose rule from…
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives The Liberian Senate has confirmed Lewis Brown, President Joseph Boakai’s controversial pick for Ambassador to the United Nations, despite opposition from leading voices in the human rights community in the country. Advocates had argued that Mr. Brown, recommended in Liberia’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commision report as one of 26 individuals who should face prosecution…
By Anthony Stephens, Senior Justice Correspondent with New Narratives Summary: One of the most important issues for designers of Liberia’s war and economic crimes court will be security. Opponents of the court, including Thomas Nimely Yaya, an ex-rebel leader, now a senator of Grand Gedeh County, have long threatened a court would “dismantle” peace, stir up old…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives The Office of War and Economic Crimes Court of Liberia said Thursday that it had received $US300,000 or 15 percent of President Joseph Boakai’s promised $US2 million for 2025, for its operations. The president pledged the funding in late April when he extended the mandate of the Office…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Joseph Boakai, Liberia’s President, offered a special prayer for the nation at a national service Wednesday at the Effort Baptist Church in Paynesville, where Boakai also serves as a deacon. As Liberians with formal employment took advantage of a surprise last minute public holiday, the president…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives President Joseph Boakai announced his government would soon commission a national war memorial to honor the victims of Liberia’s brutal civil wars and the peacekeepers from the Economic Community of West African States who died in the conflicts. The president made the announcement during the official celebration of…
By Anthony Stephens senior justice correspondent with New Narratives The Office of Liberia’s War and Economics Crimes Court launched its official outreach campaign at an event at the Office’s headquarters in Mamba Point, Monrovia on Saturday, despite having still received none of the $US2 million in funding promised by President Boakai in April. The campaign…
By Anthony Stephens, senior correspondent with New Narratives For years people who wanted to donate money to nonprofits in Europe or the U.S.A have been able to do so with the click of a button on their computer or phone through well-known platforms such as GoFundMe and GlobalGiving. Now a new platform is allowing people…
By Anthony Stephens, senior correspondent with New Narratives Mark Toner, the United States Ambassador to Liberia, is retiring from his role less a year into what was to be a two-year post. His announcement to embassy staff on Tuesday, came as a surprise, particularly as it came just a day before Liberia President Joseph Boakai…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives President Joseph Boakai has issued an official apology on behalf of the Liberian nation “to every victim of our civil conflict”— ending more than two decades of waiting by victims, survivors and advocates seeking accountability for wartime atrocities. The president apologized on Saturday during a state-sponsored “National…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives The Trump administration’s sweeping freezes on foreign aid continue to undermine a range of programs in heavily aid dependent Liberia. The cuts to health, education and agriculture have received substantial attention but cuts to the country’s anti-human trafficking work has so far gone unnoticed. Now…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Leading Liberian human rights organizations have praised the government for symbolically reburying Samuel Kanyon Doe and William Richard Tolbert, the country’s two presidents who were separately killed while in office. Doe, who ended more than a century of Americo-Liberian dominance by a military coup in 1980 was…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives The Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court of Liberia has formally submitted a national roadmap for the country’s transitional justice process to President Joseph Boakai, a move experts say is a key step toward long-delayed accountability for war-era atrocities and systemic corruption. Among the…
