By Yankuba Jallow Fifteen years ago, in 2009, the village of Kerr Mot Ali in The Gambia was a peaceful, thriving community, home to many families and followers of Sering Ndigal, a religious group known for its teachings of peace and spiritual healing. But that peace was shattered when the Gambian government launched a violent…
By Yankuba Jallow, Justice correspondent In one of its first moves the Trump administration has frozen all government assistance programs across the world for 90 days. Though much remains unclear, the new administration has indicated most of those programs – funded by USAID and the State Department – will be shuttered. The Gambia is not…
By Yankuba Jallow The US trial of an accused Liberian warlord Laye Sekou Camara, alias “K-1” or “Dragon Master” has ended in a guilty plea. Camara, facing forty years in prison for lying about his war activities on US immigration forms, pleaded guilty days before his trial was set to go ahead. In a move…
By Yankuba Jallow with New Narratives The United States government is reportedly considering shutting down its embassy in The Gambia, an unprecedented diplomatic retreat that would mark the first closure of an American mission in Banjul since it was established shortly after the country’s independence in 1965. According to a leaked internal memo from the…
By Tetee Gebro, gender reporter with New Narratives Summary: The Liberian government has approved an emergency relocation for the family of an eight-year-old rape survivor after her mother reported intimidation, unauthorized filming, and repeated visits by strangers following media coverage of the case. Officials say the intervention was driven by safety concerns, underscoring both the real risks…
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content….
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives. Funding was provided by the Clean Air Fund. The donor had no say in the story’s content. …
Ofankor-Nsawam road: Dust, diseases and deaths This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Clean Air Reporting Project. Funds were provided by the Clean Air Fund. The donor had no say in the story’s content….
Nsawam Ofankor road dust This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Clean Air Reporting Project. Funds were provided by the Clean Air Fund. The donor had no say in the story’s content….
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o7vFx3ONIA-o3dk-51tBueVmUyEE-Xkd/view?usp=share_link This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Clean Air Reporting Project. Funds were provided by the Clean Air Fund. The donor had no say in the story’s content….
By Joyce Gyekye As Pollution Returns to Agbogbloshie, the Metropolitan Assembly and Nearby Communities Take Action in What Experts Say Could Be a Model For Cleaning Toxic Air Across the Country. OLD FADAMA, Accra – In 2021, government cleared the Agbogbloshie e-waste site, once condemned as one of the world’s most toxic places. But four…
By Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith Summary BALUNGU CHECKPOINT, Upper East Region – Abdul Malik eases his heavy truck – a 12-wheel trailer hauling a 40-foot container – into a lower gear as it strains under its load. As he approaches this checkpoint in the region’s Talensi District, the roar of the 18-year-old truck’s engine gives way…
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives The United States Congress passed the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday. The Senate sharply reduced a controversial tax on remittances, money sent abroad by immigrants from an initial 5 percent proposal to 3.5 percent, and finally to 1 percent, easing the burden…
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives As civil society organizations intensify calls for debt cancellation and fiscal reform, the Liberian government has defended what it calls a deliberate effort to rebuild trust with global lenders. Alice E. Williams, assistant minister for External Resources and Debt Management at the Ministry of Finance, acknowledged the country’s historic…
By Aria Deemie, climate, environment, and science reporter with New Narratives As Liberia prepares for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, a vital United Nations-led global summit focused on mobilizing resources to fund sustainable development, later this year, civil society leaders has mounted a bold challenge to the status quo — demanding transparency, tax justice,…
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives In a quiet office on the outskirts of Monrovia, Isaac Success Yomah manages a stream of transactions from Liberians collecting money sent by loved ones abroad, mostly from the United States. It’s steady business, and for many of his customers, essential. But a provision in President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill“ put…
By Aria Deemie, climate, environment and science reporter with New Narratives Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has shut down and seized the equipment of a Liberian-Chinese mining company over alleged illegal operations and given 7-day ultimatums to a number of others, including a fully Chinese owned company. Scott Investment is co-owned by Gao Freng, a Chinese national,…
By Aria Deemie, climate and environment reporter with New Narratives Summary: SENJEH DISTRICT, Bomi County, Liberia — Sweat beads on Charles McGill’s brow as he lifts a cutlass and slams it into a log, the forest crackling with midday heat. At 89, he should be resting. Instead, he’s helping fuel Liberia’s booming charcoal trade, one of…
By Aria Deemie, climate, environment, and science reporter with New Narratives CONGO TOWN, Montserrado—Residents of the community housing Lonestar Cell MTN say they are “happy” for the recent $US15,000 fine imposed on the company by Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The fine, one of the first since the 2004 Environmental Protection and Management Law of Liberia came into effect,…
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. Funding was provided by the Swedish embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content….
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives VARNEY GOWAH TOWN, Montserrado – Kulah Tokpah arrives home from her farm, exhausted, her arms burdened with firewood for the meal she is preparing for men clearing her new plot of land. Her once fertile farm is now a patchwork of withered crops, cracked soil, and dead plants. Kulah…
