In 2018, the Land Rights Law of Liberia was passed into law. This was a good hundred years after the government formally declared “perfect, complete and absolute” possession of all lands within the borders of the State, This new law finally gives back to tribal people, the lands of their ancestors. It offers them the protection of…
Editor’s Note: This story is the first of a two-part series on an illegal logging agreement between Vambo and Marloi townships in Grand Bassa County, and African Trades Entrepreneur Enterprises Incorporated. VAMBO – Officials of Grand Bassa County have signed an illegal deal with a company to pave a dusty road through two townships in…
PAYNESVILLE – Beginning June 9, Mary Jones, a 42-year-old mother of four, took sick for a week. She had sore throat, headache and running stomach, the same symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus. Jones bought drugs from two pharmacies and took them. She thought she would contract coronavirus or be tested for the disease if…
MONROVIA – Liberia has only six ventilators, one of the country’s many challenges in combating the novel coronavirus pandemic but health authorities say they are not worried about that. Why? They have not had to use the available, meager equipment. “The absence of ventilators is not having any impact on us because none of our patients…
BARNESVILLE – David Wesseh, a resident of Kebbah, appears confused after his two houses were unroofed by a heavy storm. Wesseh, his wife and his seven children are being accommodated by friends not far from where his roofless houses stand, but he is worried that he and his family could catch coronavirus. There have been no…
BUTAW, SINOE COUNTY – Four hundred and forty-three workers have been laid off at Golden Veroleum Liberia, more than 10 percent of its workforce, the company said on Saturday. “[They are] due to the downturn of the global economy due to the coronavirus and the constant drop in the price of oil palm on the world…
PIPELINE – In 2009,Jimmy Dasaw’s plan to expand Kiddies College was underway when he purchased three acres of land for US$2,600 in Pipeline, Paynesville from Johnny Hill, the administrator of Tarsue Gbazue Estate in Johnsonville. That dream for his elementary school eventually turned into nightmare. Five years after purchasing the land, in 2014, Dasaw found himself…
SALAYEA, Lofa County – Rural towns and villages are now using ForestLink, a new app, to track illicit forest operations and deforestation across Liberia, including illegal logging and mining, and poaching in their communities. The tool also makes it possible for them to store and share information on mobile phones in a short period of time from…
GBARMA, Gbarpolu County – When news broke that Jankuba Fofana had been arrested by British police as part of an investigation into war crimes one might have expected celebration here in Gbarma. Fofana is the first member of the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) to face justice for war crimes in Liberia’s…
GBARMA, Gbarpolu County – Miatta Gray wept as she recalled the day, nearly 20 years ago, that rebels with the absurdly named “Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy” (LURD) upended her life. Mrs. Gray said the rebels arrived here with a friendly request that everyone assemble in the town square for a meeting. Then the killing…
BARKEDU, Lofa County – The convictions of Alieu Kosiah and Mohammed Jabateh for war crimes committed in Liberia sparked celebrations across Liberia. 18 years since the war ended survivors saw them as long overdue justice for the horrors of the civil war. But Liberia’s Mandingo population has not felt the same way. “There are other people…
Until December, 2022, the possibility of a third term for Mr. Weah still looms, provided the entire process—from an act to a referendum—is completed by then. Yet, we should all be wary of any new extension referendum. History tells us this is not a good idea. This seed should not be allowed to germinate. According…
SAMAY, Bong County – On October 27, 1994 fighters of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by Charles Taylor, stormed into Samay, a town on Kokoya Road towards Bong County’s border with River Cess, accusing the people of the town of supporting the rival Liberia Peace Council (LPC). The NPFL rebels killed 27 people…
Aaron Weah sees the Massaquoi trial as a clear sign to all parties that a court can happen in Liberia. Finally this month a trial over war crimes will start on Liberian soil. It’s been 18 years since the end of the Liberian civil war and nine years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended…
ZUBAH TOWN, PAYNESVILLE – Miatta Flomo has more time to sell her evening-hour cooked bowl on the street in Zubah Town, Paynesville, since the coronavirus curfew has been relaxed by three hours. However, Flomo still stays home because she does not have money to buy ingredients anymore. Her husband, Benjamin Flomo, a carpenter, did not get…
Freetown, Sierra Leone — Patrick Fatoma spends his days guiding guests around the fading halls of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone. It’s a job he has held for nearly a decade since the official close of Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2013. Fatoma’s guests include tourists, curious aid workers and researchers who come…
Editor’s Note: This story is the final of a two-part series on the extent of Alieu Kosiah’s alleged crimes in Foya District, Lofa County. FOYA DISTRICT, Lofa County – The ruins of a factory sit on a major route in a town called Menigesua, towards the Sierra Leone border. Tall grass and weeds have engulfed what…
The Pirkanmaa District Court in Finland announced Thursday that it will begin the trial of Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean, for war crimes allegedly committed in Liberia in his role as a commander of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) between 2001 and 2002 next week. Later in February the court will move to Liberia and…
Mount Barclay, LIBERIA – Going to the “Sande Bush” school was never a dream for Dearest, Tina or Precious. The three girls, all high school students, say they were abducted by traditional leaders in September and taken by force to the Sande without the consent of their parents. They spent six terrifying weeks at the…
