By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, senior correspondent with New Narratives Summary: For more than two decades, they lived in silence, haunted by the war. In January, seventeen Liberians summoned the courage to travel to the U.S. court in Philadelphia and testify against one of the most feared rebel commanders of Liberia’s second civil war: Laye Sekou…
Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
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…
“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,…
“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…
Citizens’ Fury Boils Over as Monrovia Residents Torch Drug Den
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon and Anthony Stephens with New Narratives Summary: · Residents of Saye Town in Monrovia have destroyed a notorious drug den, accusing authorities of years of inaction against crime and addiction in their community. · The Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency welcomed the raid, but locals remain distrustful, citing alleged collusion between some…
Victims Demand Toughest Punishment When LURD Rebel “K1” Goes On Trial in United States in January
Osman O. Nyei looks sadly at the storefront that now hosts a frozen food importer. It was here, in the last battles of Liberia’s third civil war in August 2003, that Osman says, Laye Sekou Camara, then a general with Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, the rebel group known as “Lurd”, murdered his brother….
Environmental Protection Agency Takes First Step to Control Air Pollution: Mandating Sensors for Companies
Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency has taken a first step to curb the air pollution that is killing and sickening Liberians. …
In Liberia Drug Addiction Is Becoming A Major Problem. Here’s What Presidential Candidates Plan to Do About It
Drug abuse is a growing problem in Liberia. There is no reliable data on user numbers but one study, by the United Nations Population Fund, found a staggering one in five Liberian youth take narcotics. …
As Drug Addiction Reaches a Crisis Liberia’s Presidential Candidates Promise Tough Remedies
In 2012 Cecelia’s life fell apart. Struggling to take care of nine children after the sudden death of her husband, she turned to her oldest son, then in his early 20s, for help. But he was lost to the family, a year into a drug addiction that was destroying his life….