Environment, Climate and Extractives Reporting

New Narratives supports dozens of investigations into extractives industries and climate, land and water justice in West Africa each year. We shine a spotlight on the impacts on real people here on the frontlines of climate change. In Ghana our work has focused on the dramatic impacts of air pollution. In Liberia and Sierra Leone we have shone a spotlight on mining and oil industries as well as climate justice. We have highlighted the work of changemakers and supported the work of civil society organizations bringing transparency to these crucial sectors. See some of our work here. We thank our donors – the Clean Air Fund, American Jewish World Service, the Swedish and US embassies in Liberia, and German Development Cooperation – for supporting this work.

Doctors Blame High Number of Child Burns on Parental Ignorance

Two-year-old Rosetta Fokpa lies on her back, left foot raised in the air. A pretty little girl with braids, she cries bitterly. Boiling water scalded her legs, exposing a layer of fresh pink skin. It happened a week ago but the little girl is still in terrible pain. Fokpa’s mother says the child stepped into…

Wade Williams
FrontPage Africa

Women lifted Ma Ellen to president in 2005. Will they do it again?

Maima Sackie has lived here in Memeh Town, a collection of mud and thatch-roof houses 30 minutes from Monrovia, for fifteen years, selling potato greens to take care of her four children. The stout 46 year-old, wearing a dark t-shirt and flowery lappa, says incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf hasn’t done enough to improve women’s…

Mae Azango
FrontPage Africa

Fugitive Police Officer Arrested, Charged in Rape of 13-year Old

Monrovia-A 38-year-old police officer has been arrested in connection with the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl, authorities said.  The alleged perpetrator had evaded police since the incident was reported on May 14. He was arrested last night at an undisclosed location in Paynesville on an insider tip. The officer was disrobed immediately, said Vera…

Mae Azango
FrontPage Africa

Another Rape Victim: Police Officer Allegedly Rapes 13-year-old Girl

Barely two weeks following the arrest of 21-yr-old rape suspect, who was charged with statutory rape of a 12 yr-old girl on old road, another rape case has surfaced with a Police officer accused of raping a 13 yr-old girl in the Paynesville- ELWA Junction area.FrontPageAfrica is withholding the name of the accused officer –…

Mae Azango
FrontPage Africa

Liberian mercenaries tell of rampage in Ivory Coast

Liberian mercenaries returning from western Ivory Coast tell the Monitor that they recently fought for both sides in Ivory Coast’s civil war, killing civilians, raping women, and destroying villages as they went. One commander of a unit of more than 30 Liberian mercenaries who returned days ago from Ivory Coast, Karmo Watson, says he was…

Emily Schmall and Mae Azango
Christian Science Monitor

Jobless Without Qaddafi: Withdrawal of Libyan Investment Spurs Unemployment

Foya, Lofa County – Theresa Fallah, a 26-year-old mother of two, worked in this green, mountainous region tilling the soil to grow rice, a Liberian staple, under a Liberian-Libyan partnership launched in 2007. Now Fallah, like other workers, is unemployed as Libya withdraws its investments in Liberia. Once a field laborer with the rice production…


Liberia’s elections, ritual killings and cannibalism

MONROVIA, Liberia — The pregnant woman was found dead in the shallows of Lake Shepherd. The fetus had been removed. A candidate for Liberia’s Senate and a former county attorney are among those standing trial for the 2009 murder, the latest in a long history of ritual sacrifices performed for political power in Liberia. In…

Emily Schmall, Wade Williams
Global Post

New Child-Friendly School at Risk from Teacher Walkout

GANTA–The first grade class at Ganta’s new child-friendly school recites multiplication tables as teacher’s assistant Mary Seway paces through the neat rows of tiny chairs and desks. At this school – the first of its kind in Liberia– children are the primary focus. Seway, a 45-year-old teaching veteran, said the approach allows more teacher-student interaction….

Mae Azango
FrontPage Africa

Jumpstarting Liberia’s rubber industry

BUCHANAN, Liberia — The sun is high over the Buchanan Renewables nursery, a green expanse of 400,000 tiny seedlings. Theresa Doe hunches over one seedling, grafting a Malaysian clone that will produce a high-yielding rubber tree. “It’s my living,” she says, her eyes fixed on the plant. Doe and some 500 employees of this Canadian…

Emily Schmall and Wade Williams
Global Post

LIBERIA: VERY RICH, OR VERY POOR

MONROVIA—It is after 8 o’clock in the evening on the Barnersville estate, a low-income housing project on the outskirts of the capital of Liberia. The entire area is dark. A few candles illuminate small shops along the road. A path leads to Kollie Yard, a cluster of faded whitewashed houses surrounding a sand pit. The…

Tecee Boley
World Policy Institute

‘Dry Bones Cry’ Time to Bury Liberia’s War Dead?

Two white stars painted on the basketball court at the Lutheran Church on 15th Street are all that mark the buried remains of more than 500 people killed in the infamous 1990 massacre here. On that July night, Liberians fleeing for their lives thought they had found a safe haven in the church compound. Surely,…

Wade Williams
Front Page Africa

Liberian Woman in Running for International Courage Award

Gbaye Town, Margibi County — A Liberian lady is being considered for the International Women of Courage award, given each year to leading women’s advocates from around the world. The awards ceremony is held in Washington and attended by leading women such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton….

Mae Azango
FrontPage Africa

Liberia Border Tense as Ivorian Crisis Intensifies 

Security along the border between Ivory Coast and Liberia is under threat as Ivorian cross to the Liberian side at will, according to UN officials working at the border. Officials here say the Liberian security presence here is ineffective. Outtara fighters caused panic among refugees in Zleh, a border town in Grand Gedeh County, on…

Mae Azango
Front Page Africa
Ivory Coast rebel force commander Angelou

As Ivory Coast Heads for Civil War, Thousands Seek Safety in Liberia.

TOETOWN, Liberia — As gun battles between Ivory Coast’s rival armed forces intensify, throngs of refugees are fleeing the fighting for the relative safety of neighboring Liberia. About 90,000 Ivorians have crossed into eastern Liberia, according to U.N. refugee experts, who expect that number to swell to 500,000 if Ivory Coast slides back into civil…

Emily Schmall and Mae Azango
Global Post

‘BLEEDING PLENTY’: Unsafe Abortions Kill Liberian Women

For every three women who give birth at the James N. Davies Memorial Hospital in Monrovia, another woman is treated for complications after an unsafe abortion.  Since January, the maternity hospital in Jacob Town has treated 281 women who have either tried to abort the baby themselves or paid someone else to do it. “They…

Clara Mallah
FrontPage Africa