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,…
Liberia’s music industry will mark a poignant moment this weekend. It is 28 years since musician Tecumsay Roberts was gunned down. Witnesses say the killer was General Samuel Varnii acting under the command of Prince Johnson. This story first appeared on Power TV as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Liberian musicians will…
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…
They may be the most unlikely group of people expected to support the push for a war crimes court in Liberia. More than 100,000 of them, now former combatants, laid down their weapons at the end of the civil wars in 2003. Now some of them say justice must be served. This story first appeared…
The Program New Narratives, a non-governmental organization that has been driving improvements in Liberia’s media sector for 9 years, is recruiting journalists for a year-long program that supports Liberian media to cover the country’s extractives industry. Support for the project comes from the German Development Cooperation. The program has a focus on mining, which is…
BLOH TOWN, River Cess – For Elizabeth Byamue, 63, the horror of the day that destroyed her world has never gone away. This story first appeared on River Cess Radio and Bush Chicken as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. “I can still remember – it was on a Friday when the…
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…
They may be the most unlikely group of people expected to support the push for a war crimes court in Liberia. More than 100,000 of them, now former combatants, laid down their weapons at the end of the civil wars in 2003. Now some of them say justice must be served. This story first appeared…
Monrovia – A new survey on social cohesion and reconciliation (SCORE) has found that majority of Liberians do not support amnesty for perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, the survey revealed that majority of Liberians seek apology, the truth and compensation from perpetrators as preconditions for amnesty. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part…
New Narratives, a non-governmental organization that has been driving improvements in Liberia’s media sector for 9 years, is excited to announce a new reporting project, with support from the American Jewish World Service. The project will run a 10-month project that supports Liberian journalists and news organizations to cover issues related to land, water and…
MONROVIA – The year 2018 will go down as the biggest year yet for criminal accountability of war crimes and crimes committed in during the Liberian civil war (1989-2003). But advocates for a Liberian war crimes court say 2019 will be even busier, with two cases in the United States and four in Europe—one each…
SINJE, Capemount 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…
Pleebo, Maryland County – The 14-year civil war spared no part of Liberia. The county of Maryland suffered an especially heavy toll. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report recorded 3,934 victims here, the second highest after Sinoe (5,706). This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline 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…
Kullie is one of thousands of Liberians who are still suffering as a result of shocking things that happened to them or what they saw happened to others during the war in Liberia. There are no recent statistics available but a 2008 study conducted five years after Liberia’s civil war ended by Harvard Humanitarian Initiative at Harvard University, found that 40% of Liberians had symptoms of major depression and 44% appeared to have post-traumatic stress disorder….
MONROVIA – An American court has ruled that Moses Thomas, the senior officer who allegedly ordered the Lutheran Church Massacre, will face trial in Philadelphia. A civil suit brought by the Center for Justice and Accountability on behalf of four anonymous survivors of the massacre alleges Thomas gave the command for the killings when he…
SAMAY, Bong – As calls for the establishment of war and economic crimes court in Liberia intensify, victims and survivors of the infamous Samay Massacre have joined, demanding the prosecution of those who carried out the massacre here in 1994 that killed 28 people and destroyed 22 houses. This story first appeared on Bush Chicken as…
Monrovia – It has been 28 years since the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Massacre. Survivors, most of whom only escaped death through the sacrifice of loved ones, have yet to see justice. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Peterson Sonyah, 43, was only…
MONROVIA – “We are the victims; we cannot get tired!” “We want justice!” and “Yor leave us oh! Dah justice we want!” were among an estimated 4,000 Liberians who gathered early Monday morning to memorialize the deaths of 250,000 thousand people who died during the Liberian civil war. The march, through the streets of Monrovia,…
Monrovia – Stephen Rapp, former United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice and Dr. Uchenna Emelonye, Country Representative of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights have both called for Liberia to set up a war crimes court to prosecute perpetrators of its civil war. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfrica as part of…
