West Africa Justice Reporting Project

Since 2017 New Narratives has supported West African journalists to cover groundbreaking universal jurisdiction cases that have held accused perpetrators of crimes against humanity to account in Europe and North America. This important movement in international justice has allowed justice systems around the world to prosecute those who seek to hide out in their territory and avoid justice at home.

Journalists from Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone have travelled to the United States and Europe to cover trials of accused perpetrators for audiences across West Africa. They have also covered the quest for justice, reparation and reconciliation in all its forms, at home.

Hassan Bility, Liberian justice advocate.

“New Narratives, I expect and hope, should keep up the world and the Liberian people informed of developments every step of the way. I believe NN deserves a justice prize. Your journalism gave Liberians hope when no one believed there was a chance.”

Massa Washington, former commissioner with the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

”New Narratives has played a pivotal role in assisting Liberians to understand the importance of establishing a war crimes court and why holding alleged perpetrators accountable is good for Liberia’s stability, peace, security and growth. New Narratives is the “window” through which Liberians and the rest of the world are informed and educated about transitional justice processes concerning Liberia. Since its inception on the Liberian scene, New Narratives has established itself as Liberia’s premiere news outlet and authoritative source for accurate, timely and in-depth reporting and analysis on efforts to address issues of accountability for crimes committed during Liberia’s turbulent 14 years civil conflict and efforts aimed at ending impunity. Through the dedication, commitment and hardwork from project staff, New Narratives is playing a pivotal role in shaping the narrative in transitional justice reporting on Liberia. The consistency and quality of New Narratives’s coverage of events ensures that  Liberians are continuously equipped with appropriate, factual information to assist them understand what is happening which ultimately bolstered their courage to finally commit to establishing the Court.⁠ ⁠Continue to play the role you’re playing.”

The project has been funded by the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund and Australia Aid.


Foya Wants Death Sentence for Alieu Kosiah in War Crimes Trial

FOYA DISTRICT, Lofa County, Liberia – In June 1993, rebels of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) overran this Kissi countryside and drove out their rivals, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). People fled for their lives into the forest. ULIMO fetched them out from their hideouts up to October of…

VIDEO: As the first trial of a Liberian for war crimes committed during the civil war begins, we talk with his alleged victims.

With the historic war crimes trial of Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah under way in Switzerland, TV reporter Anthony Stephens and cameraman Harry Browne explore Kosiah’s alleged violence. They capture the firsthand accounts of atrocities from the relatives of victims. These survivors have been waiting for nearly three decades for justice. Kosiah is the first accused Liberian…

VIDEO: Liberia’s Health Care Workers Aren’t Getting the Pay They Deserve in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Liberia’s frontline soldiers fighting coronavirus are complaining of working under poor conditions. Health care workers tell Anthony Stephens they have not been paid for months and are not receiving hazard compensation. After this piece aired on PowerTV, Liberia’s government announced it would give hazard pay to those risking their lives. But healthcare workers say they…

VIDEO: Security Brutality Amid Liberia’s Coronavirus Lockdown

Power TV’s Anthony Stephens and cameraman Harry Browne bring this in-depth report on how Liberia’s security forces are brutalizing civilians to enforce the coronavirus lockdown and victims are demanding justice. Security Brutality Amid Liberia’s Coronavirus Lockdown from New Narratives on Vimeo….

VIDEO: Liberia’s Poor Hit Hard by Coronavirus Shutdown

Liberia extends the coronavirus state of emergency and passes a stimulus package for the poor. But the poorest Liberians, known as “zogos”, living on the streets, have received no relief. Anthony Stephens of Power TV reports that they are also now suffering brutality at the hands of security forces.  Liberia’s Poor Hit Hard by Coronavirus…

For This Survivor, The Civil War Still Rages On

PAYNESVILLE, Montserrado County, Liberia – In the quiet suburb of Cow Field community, in the Duport Road part of Paynesville, Tenneh Dolokon, 26, sits on a worn cushion and stares out at the marshland on the fringes of her unfinished house. She spends much of every day like this. Dolokon was a toddler in 1994, when…

Fernando Po Crisis and the Absence of Accountability in Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia – The future was bright for Doboe-Blee Garley, a 20-year-old, newly-married man in 1926. Well built and outstanding in the Menson Clan of Tchien District in Grand Gedeh County, Garley was a great royal hunter and a farmer. His wife, Munah, had come from a long lineage of traditional priests. Excitedly, the newlyweds made…

Liberia: Woman Claims Police Won’t Investigate Abduction

CONGO TOWN, Monrovia, Liberia – A woman who alleges she was abducted from outside her compound by unknown men, drugged, raped and dumped on the Robertsfield Highway, has accused the police of failing to launch an investigation into her ordeal. She claims the police are intimidating her and her visitors as she undergoes treatment in hospital. …

Crisis Roils the Catholic Church as NN Investigation Reveals Bishops’ Abuse of Power; Vatican Stays Silent

MONROVIA, Liberia – A leading priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Liberia has made explosive allegations against Arch Bishop Lewis Zeigler and Bishop Andrew Karnley roiling Catholic congregations in the country. In his testimony, sent to Pope Francis’s email address and by registered mail to the Vatican and to Reverend Monsignor Dagoberto Campos Salas, the…

The April Hoodoo Still Haunting Liberians

MONROVIA, Liberia – As Liberians cross off the final days of April, many still fear the April hoodoo or “misfortunes” could soon return. With recent demonstrations over economic inequality and former warlords causing chaos earlier this month, some fear the hoodoo could be working its juju.  Liberia’s recent history has been marked by deadly events that…

Liberia: No Decoration for Forgotten ‘Death Hole’ Victims

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…

The Story of a Liberian War Crimes Campaigner – Adama Dempster

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…

War is Over, But for Rape Victims, Suffering Goes On

KPEWUDU TOWN, River Cess – The last 27 years have not been kind to Mechen Barchue. The single mother with two children to support lives in a thatched hut she constructed herself and sells charcoal to make ends meet. This story first appeared on The Bush Chicken as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting…

War Victims and Perpetrators Living Together in Fear and Anger

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….

Liberia: War Survivors Angry Boley Not Jailed in America

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…