West Africa Justice Reporting Project

DEATH HOLE, Monrovia, Liberia – Loud weeping and low meditations, wreaths on sparkling graves, radiant tombstones with prayers that the inhabitants “Rest in Peace”, quarrels over vaults and vandalism, too.  These are some of the highlights of Decoration Day, observed this year on March 13.  But the graveyard at the end of the runway of the…

MONROVIA, Liberia – Adama Dempster still graphically recollects his first encounters with war. He was in 5th grade at a public school in Yekepa in Nimba County, when rebels with the National Patriotic Front of Liberia began recruiting school boys as child soldiers. The NPFL recruitment of child soldiers was done discreetly, so some of Dempster’s…

BLAY TOWN, River Cess – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report recorded 30 massacres in River Cess, making it the county with the second highest number of mass killings during the wars. Only Lofa saw more. But people here in River Cess say there were many more massacres that the TRC did not cover….

Sasstown District, Grand Kru County – Vincent Toe, 41, was only a lad when he witnessed rebels with the Liberia Peace Council (LPC) kill his aunty and eight other people in a town called Behtu. The rebels accused them of practicing witchcraft. “They cut off her head in front of me,” Toe says of his aunt…

Monrovia – A frail girl sits quietly on a wooden bench. A silky dress is pulled over her knees. Her face is a vision of fear. Tracy, not her real name, is only ten, but she has already suffered the trauma of rape. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice…

GANTA, Nimba County – Conflicts over land have long plagued Nimba County but the 14-year-civil war made the problem much worse. Now, 15 years from the end of the war, conflict over land is threatening to spill into violence once again. This story first appeared on The Daily Observer as part of a collaboration for the West Africa…

Monrovia – Fabine Kwiah was only a child when she and her two elder brothers Paul and Josephus Kwiah fled Fendell to Clara Town amid fierce fighting between soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and rebels of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL). It was 1990 and the AFL soldiers—loyal to then…

MONROVIA – The complex web of land rights issue catches everyone in Liberia with its tendrils reaching rich and poor alike. One family that claims it is a victim is that of the slain president, Samuel K. Doe. Former first Lady NanceB. Doe, accuses Cllr. Archibald F. Bernard, legal advisor to President George Weah, of using political power to…

SINJE, Cape Mount County – Alhaji Tucker was only 10 when the civil war started in Liberia, but he remembers clearly the day rebels fighting with ULIMO K brutally slaughtered his little brother and other family members here. Tucker has vowed to testify against the attackers known as “Senegalese” and “Bility” before a war crimes court…

KPOLOKPALAH, Bong – It has been barely 25 years since the Kpolokpalah Massacre that saw the gruesome murder of more than 300 people by fighters from the Liberian Peace Council under the leadership of George Boley. This story first appeared on Bush Chicken and Radio Gbarnga as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting…

MONROVIA – The lyrics of ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Ma Susu’ – albums by the late Tecumsay Roberts – live on in the minds of many Liberians. An icon of the music scene when he was killed in 1990 at age 39, Roberts was bigger in Liberia than Michael Jackson. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part of a…

GANTA, Nimba County – No one hearing “rogue! rogue! rogue!” in the middle of the night in a community in the city of Ganta stays asleep long. This story first appeared on The Daily Observer as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Instead, people rush out with machetes to find the culprit. When…

MONROVIA – The conversation about setting up a War Crimes Court in Liberia has intensified in the last 18 months. This is partly due to a push by local and international advocates for accountability, finally, for the brutality that claimed the lives of 250,000 Liberians. They’ve seen an opportunity in the election of President George Weah,…

GANTA, Nimba County – If Nimba’s most famous son, Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, is to be believed, this is one county that will not back the growing call for a war crimes court.  This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. “My people believe I am a hero…

Monrovia – Joseph S. Kannah Jr. was just five years old when his father was allegedly gunned down by Prince Johnson’s forces. More than 28 years on, Kannah, whose father Joseph S. Kannah Sr. was the Assistant Minister of State for Logistics, is yet to locate his father’s remains for burial. This story first appeared on…