Across Africa, a new malaria drug for newborns and young infants is being hailed as a breakthrough, one that could save tens of thousands of lives each year.The medicine is already approved in eight African countries. But in Liberia, where malaria remains one of the leading killers of children, health officials say it may take…
By Tetee Gebro, New Narratives health correspondent Summary: SWAKAMORE, Monrovia – Here in this community on the outskirts of the capital, silence has replaced laughter. On Friday morning, three young men from the community, who had been preparing to paint a store, were found dead after sleeping inside the enclosed space. The store, in Camp…
By Joyclyn Wea, New Narratives health correspondent Summary When a pregnancy turns dangerous, doctors do not always have time to debate words. Liberian pharmacist and former politician Joseph Somwarbi told a recent workshop in Monrovia that abortion opponents have taken advantage of the issue to score political points at the cost of thousands of Liberian women’s…
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Summary: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the primary United Nations body responsible for global human rights, is today beginning the training of Liberian lawyers focused on accountability for past crimes, as momentum rebuilds toward the establishment of a war crimes court in…
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…
More than one million Liberian farmers grow the food that feeds the country, but many of them do not know the real market prices of what they produce. Without this information, farmers often sell their crops at very low prices to middlemen who later make big profits, leaving farming families struggling to survive. Without access…
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,…
The lawyer for a 14-year-old rape survivor challenges the credibility of police conclusions that cleared former government official Bryant McGill, calling for full transparency in an investigation that many fear undermines trust in Liberia’s justice system. Tetee Gebro reports in this social media Video. To read more about this story click this link: Liberia: Lawyer for…
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…
In this powerful Okayfm/New Narratives radio feature, we go to the heart of Liberia’s forested communities, where families who depend on the land for food and survival are voicing anger and fear over being left out of national carbon credit negotiations. As the government prepares to tap into global carbon markets and sell the forests’…
In this compelling Okay FM/New Narratives radio report, we travel to Liberia’s rural hinterlands where rising poverty and deepening inequality aren’t just statistics but daily realities reshaping lives and threatening stability. From farmers forced to abandon their fields to families struggling to send their children to school, we hear from those grappling with the widening…
By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh with New Narratives TUBMANBURG, Bomi County – Under a hot afternoon sun, Massa Kollie stirs a mixture of caustic soda and oil, her bare hands working methodically. Sweat trickles down her face and arms as she labors to make iron soap with no safety gear. It’s a livelihood born of necessity….
In this Kool FM/New Narratives radio report, listeners travel to rural Liberia where the twin forces of deforestation and climate change are leaving communities dangerously exposed to more frequent and devastating windstorms. Across counties like Nimba and Rivercess, families who once relied on forests as natural barriers now find their homes and livelihoods laid bare…
By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh with New Narratives A day after the official end of this year’s United Nations COP29 gathering of countries committed to halting climate change, negotiators struck a last-minute deal for wealthy countries to help poorer countries like Liberia deal with global warming. The so-called “finance COP” held this year in Baku, Azerbajain,…
ActionAid Liberia coordinator on climate change, Norwu meeting with stakeholders in Monrovia. By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh With New Narratives Monrovia, Liberia — Stakeholders in Liberia’s agriculture sector are coming together this week for a three-day summit designed to kick start a new approach to the growing threat of climate change. The summit “Climate Financing for Agroecology and…
