Uncategorized Archives - New Narratives

Three Months On From Government’s World Sight Day Pledge to Screen 1,000 Students and Distribute 12,000 Glasses, Few Details Are Available

Three months after the government’s big World Sight Day promise to screen 1,000 students and distribute 12,000 reading glasses, communities are still waiting for clear answers. While the Ministry of Health says thousands of glasses came from international donors, there’s still no public breakdown showing who actually received them. With so many Liberian children struggling…

Fatu Kamara
Video

Funding Cuts, Weak Oversight, And Hidden Traps: Experts Sound the Alarm on Liberia’s New U.S. Health Deal

Liberia’s new U.S. health deal is being sold as progress, but experts warn it may leave the country more vulnerable than ever. Funding for lifesaving programs has been slashed, oversight is weaker, and critical services for women and families could disappear just when Liberians need them most. Even more alarming, the agreement gives the U.S….

Joyclyn Wea
Video

The Corruption That Allows Liberia’s Human Traffickers To Stay Free To Exploit the Poorest Citizens

More than 50 Liberians escaped a trafficking compound hidden in plain sight — and now they fear the people who tortured and deceived them may walk free. These survivors, some held for nearly a year, starved, beaten, and forced to lure their own family members into the trap, bravely told prosecutors everything. Their testimony should…

Anthony Stephens
Video

Liberia’s Anti-Corruption Watchdog Asked Liberians to Report Corruption By Putting Allegations in Boxes – It Didn’t Work

By Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives Summary: In August, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, hoping to encourage Liberians to call out what experts say is rampant corruption at every level of government, began placing whistleblower boxes across key government ministries, agencies, and police stations. They hoped people, particularly officials of government, would quietly report corruption and other illegal…

Joyclyn Wea
Frontpage Africa

How Liberia’s Human Traffickers Stay Free

A mass escape from a trafficking ring handed prosecutors everything they needed for Liberia’s biggest trafficking conviction. 51 victims say a bribe is about to set their traffickers free By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent and New Narratives editors On a morning last October, more than 50 women and men walked into Paynesville magistrates’ court…

Anthony Stephens
Frontpage Africa

“We Are Tired”: Women Demand Justice and Action on Gender Violence; Police Chief Promises Action

Women across Monrovia raised their voices in a powerful march demanding justice for Toni Jackson and urgent action to end the rising tide of gender‑based violence in Liberia. Carrying signs that read “We Are Tired,” they called on authorities to protect women and girls with the seriousness the crisis deserves. Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman…

Joyclyn Wea
Video

The Hidden Health Risks Facing Clothing Recyclers in a World Flooded With Plastic Fibers

By Albert Oppong-Ansah Not too long ago, every morning would have found Linda seated next to her friend Ruth Odom, at their small stalls at Accra’s Kantamanto market, in one of the largest secondhand clothing markets in the world. Before them would lie piles of clothes in different colours and sizes – polo shirts,…

Albert Oppong-Ansah
Ghana News Agency

Saudi Rice Shipment Becomes Early Test of Boakai Government’s Anti-Corruption Drive, But Experts Say Delay in Trial is Undermining Trust

In Liberia, a corruption case involving 25,000 bags of donated Saudi riceis from Saudi Arabia is becoming an early test of President JosephBoakai’s promise to crack down on graft. In 2024 thousands of flood victims in rural counties were left with nogovernment help after flood waters washed away homes. Prosecutorssay half the rice was stolen….

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Radio

Vigilante Mob Levels River Cess Village; Authorities Slow to Respond

In River Cess County, more than 150 women and children are sleeping outdoors after a mob burned homes and food stores in Bethel Town in the latest example of vigilante violence across the country.Six men including the town chief have finally been taken into custody after police took 10 days to arrive in the town.The…

Eric Opa Doue
Radio

As Liberia Debates War Crimes Court, Experts Urge Forced Marriage Be Treated as a Crime

Threats to witnesses in the trials of accused perpetrators in the United States and Europe aregrowing according to justice activists. Seven victims who have testified have been relocated inthe last six months alone.New Narratives’ senior justice correspondent, Anthony Stephens, met one of the witnesses,who says he now fears for his safety after the United States…

Anthony Stephens
Radio

As Liberia Debates War Crimes Court, Experts Urge Forced Marriage Be Treated as a Crime

Liberian justice advocates are pushing for stronger protections for victims as the country moves toward establishing a war crimes court. At a recent conference in Monrovia, human rights expert Elise Keppler stressed that crimes like forced marriage and other gender‑based abuses must be fully recognized in the court’s legislation to ensure meaningful justice. She said…

Anthony Stephens
Video

U.N. Begins Training Lawyers Ahead of War Crimes Court’s Establishment

Liberia is taking a major step toward long‑awaited justice as the U.N. Human Rights Office begins training 20 Liberian lawyers on prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity. The two‑day program aims to build local capacity ahead of a proposed war and economic crimes court, strengthening legal institutions and preparing lawyers who have never handled…

Anthony Stephens
Video

French Court of Appeal upholds Guilty Verdict for Liberian Warlord

The French Court of Appeal hand has found former Ulimo comer, Kunti Kamara guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, upholding his earlier 30-year sentence. In the French judicial system comprising 3 judges and 9 juries, the jury needed to have an innate belief in Kamara’s guilt to convict. A simple majority of jurors,…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
Radio

Anti-Corruption Watchdog is dysfunctional, ending scrutiny of government one year from election

Three months since the government’s highly controversial decision to overhaul the Liberian Anti Corruption Commission the country’s independent corruption watchdog has been silenced. Staff say no investigations are being done and morale is at zero. Things have only become more uncertain with the news that the Supreme Court will consider whether the overhaul was constitutional….

Varney Dukuly
Radio

Vigilante Mob Levels River Cess Village; Authorities Slow to Respond

Residents of Bethel in River Cess County say more than 100 men from nearby Bah Clan communities stormed their town after rumors falsely accused them of killing a missing hunter, leaving 24 homes and 27 rice kitchens burned and over 150 women and children sleeping under the palaver hut with almost nothing to eat. Survivors…

Eric Opa Doue
Video

Saudi Rice Shipment Becomes Early Test of Boakai Government’s Anti-Corruption Drive, But Experts Say Delay in Trial is Undermining Trust

Flood victims in River Cess and Margibi say they were left hungry and abandoned after the 2024 rains destroyed their homes, even as officials promised help that never came. Their stories now sit at the center of a major corruption case involving 25,000 bags of Saudi‑donated rice that prosecutors say were diverted instead of reaching…

Joyclyn Wea
Video

What can Liberia learn from South Africa about reconciliation and Commemoration?

Now a special report from Johannesburg South Africa. In November, our reporter Fatu Kamara traveled to the city thirty years after the end of the apartheid regime that segregated the population by race and brutally oppressed the black majority. South Africa’s first Black president Nelson Mandela famously championed reconciliation with former apartheid leaders even after…

Fatu Kamara
Okay FM

A Lack of Trash Management Leaves Rural Liberians Battling Health Impacts

We all know waste management is a crisis in Monrovia and Paynesville where mounds of trash line streets and block drainage causing major headaches. But it’s also a problem across rural Liberia where there is very little or no waste collection at all. People are forced to burn their trash adding to air pollution and…

Glora Wleh
Radio

Mudslide Death Toll Reaches 11 As Survivors Left without Financial Assistance, Struggle to Cater to Mediation and Needs

By Eric Opa Doue, Contributing Writer CHIO TOWN, River Cess—Aaron Harris, an injured person from the Chio Town mudslide who was being treated at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, was confirmed dead on Sunday morning by authorities. This brings the number of casualties to 11. Apart from the initial ten individuals who were…

Eric Opa Doue
Frontpage Africa

Crisis in Rural Education Continues to End Student Dreams

Education has long been a distant hope for most young people in Liberia’s rural areas. While urban students find a way forward, rural students often find there is no school for them after the 6th or 9th grade. In this collaboration with New Narratives, reporter Siaway T. Miapue travels to Arthington in Montserrado County to…

Siaway T. Miapue
Radio

Advocates Condemn Pres. Boakai’s Pick to Head War Crimes Court Office – Say Relationship with Rebel Faction Leader Will Undermine Public Trust

By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia— Justice activists have expressed anger and disappointment at President Joseph Boakai’s appointment of Jonathan Massaquoi as head of the Office for War and Economic Crimes Courts for Liberia. They said Massaquoi’s role as lawyer for former warlord Agnes Reeves-Taylor in cases against justice activists will undermine public…

Anthony Stephens
Frontpage Africa