MONROVIA, Liberia — On a rainy August evening three days before a national referendum, white United Nations tanks rolled down Tubman Boulevard, the Liberian capital’s main road, and took up positions in front of the president’s house and the national legislature. It was a signal Liberia’s security forces and the U.N. force feared poll violence….
UN Prepares for Violence in Liberia’s poll
MONROVIA, Liberia — On a rainy August evening three days before a national referendum, white United Nations tanks rolled down Tubman Boulevard, the Liberian capital’s main road, and took up positions in front of the president’s house and the national legislature. It was a signal Liberia’s security forces and the U.N. force feared poll violence….
NN Welcomes First Opinion Writing Fellow, Robtel Pailey
New Narratives welcomes its first opinion writing fellow, Robtel Pailey. Robtel is a writer and activist who has extensive experience in the development world and government. She is a graduate of Howard and Oxford universities and is undertaking her Ph.D. at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African studies in London as a…
She Na Fini Yet ‘O: Why Ellen Is the Only Choice on October 11
There was a lot “spoiled” about Liberia in January 2006, when a woman draped in regal gold, with a glitter of hope in her eyes, took the podium, offering a promise of renewal. Monrovia roads had pot-holes the size of bomb craters, and the streets were littered with dirt and debris. Rural roads were barely…
‘No Vote For Ellen In Nimba’: Candidate Prince Johnson Claims Referendum Victory
The flag bearer of the National Union for Democratic Progress, NUDP, Nimba County’s senior Senator Prince Y. Johnson says, he will make sure that President Johnson-Sirleaf does not get any vote from Nimba County. Senator Johnson addressing a number of issues over the weekend said President Sirleaf has lost the confidence of the people of…
Dangerous Pregnancy: Unsafe Abortion a Problem for Liberian Teens
Monrovia – Pale and weak, Pauline Kule was rushed to the James N. Davis Memorial hospital in July because she had been bleeding profusely. The 19-year-old swallowed 15 pills hoping to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. A ninth-grade student, Kule says she was afraid her father would withdraw his financial support if he found…
‘I Do It To Survive’: Women Caught Up In Liberia’s Drug Trade
Dealing heroin is a risky business, she says, but she would rather do it than sell her body. “I do this just to survive and not be on the street. To sell your body cheap for money on the street, that is not fine, so I rather help people to sell their drugs,” she says….
Environmental Activists Threatens to Sue Liberian Government Over Rights Abuses
The Key campaigner of Green Advocates, Cllr. Alfred Brownell has threatened a lawsuit against the government for allowing Sime Darby, an oil palm production company to operate in Cape Mount and Bomi Counties in violation of the citizens’ rights under the constitution of Liberia. Cllr. Brownell said in an exclusive interview with this paper that…
New Narratives reporter wins prestigious Pulitzer Center grant to travel to World Water Week in Sweden and report on water and sanitation issues.
Tecee Boley, NN fellow and Liberian Women’s Democracy Radio reporter, becomes the first Liberian to win a grant with the US based Pulitzer Center. Tecee will travel to Sweden to attend World Water Week – her first trip outside West Africa. Tecee and the Pulitzer Center will then travel to Liberia to report on the…
Doctors Blame High Number of Child Burns on Parental Ignorance
Two-year-old Rosetta Fokpa lies on her back, left foot raised in the air. A pretty little girl with braids, she cries bitterly. Boiling water scalded her legs, exposing a layer of fresh pink skin. It happened a week ago but the little girl is still in terrible pain. Fokpa’s mother says the child stepped into…
In Run-Up to Election, Women Debate Record of Liberia’s First Female President
Six years ago in the Liberian presidential elections slightly more than half of voters were women, giving rise to the first female president in Liberia and Africa. But with barely two months to go before elections women say the president shouldn’t take their vote for granted. From Monrovia, New Narratives fellow Fabine Kwiah reports. …
Women lifted Ma Ellen to president in 2005. Will they do it again?
Maima Sackie has lived here in Memeh Town, a collection of mud and thatch-roof houses 30 minutes from Monrovia, for fifteen years, selling potato greens to take care of her four children. The stout 46 year-old, wearing a dark t-shirt and flowery lappa, says incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf hasn’t done enough to improve women’s…
NN fellow Tecee Boley Reports from Water Week in Sweden for the Pulitzer Center
Tecee’s trip is part of a grant she won from the Pulitzer Center grant to cover water and sanitation issues. It’s Tecee’s first trip out of West Africa and she’s getting lots of ideas for how she’d like to see Liberia improve. …
Fugitive Police Officer Arrested, Charged in Rape of 13-year Old
Monrovia-A 38-year-old police officer has been arrested in connection with the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl, authorities said. The alleged perpetrator had evaded police since the incident was reported on May 14. He was arrested last night at an undisclosed location in Paynesville on an insider tip. The officer was disrobed immediately, said Vera…
Another Rape Victim: Police Officer Allegedly Rapes 13-year-old Girl
Barely two weeks following the arrest of 21-yr-old rape suspect, who was charged with statutory rape of a 12 yr-old girl on old road, another rape case has surfaced with a Police officer accused of raping a 13 yr-old girl in the Paynesville- ELWA Junction area.FrontPageAfrica is withholding the name of the accused officer –…
Liberian mercenaries tell of rampage in Ivory Coast
Liberian mercenaries returning from western Ivory Coast tell the Monitor that they recently fought for both sides in Ivory Coast’s civil war, killing civilians, raping women, and destroying villages as they went. One commander of a unit of more than 30 Liberian mercenaries who returned days ago from Ivory Coast, Karmo Watson, says he was…
Jobless Without Qaddafi: Withdrawal of Libyan Investment Spurs Unemployment
Foya, Lofa County – Theresa Fallah, a 26-year-old mother of two, worked in this green, mountainous region tilling the soil to grow rice, a Liberian staple, under a Liberian-Libyan partnership launched in 2007. Now Fallah, like other workers, is unemployed as Libya withdraws its investments in Liberia. Once a field laborer with the rice production…
Chief of police forces police to arrest a police officer accused of rape and launches investigation into police brutality after reporting by NN fellow Mae Azango and Ichi Vazquez – August 8, 2011
Liberian Police Chief George Bardu has demanded police arrest a policeman who was accused of raping an 11-year-old girl. The move comes a month after NN fellow Mae Azango and CUNY student and NN intern Ichi Vazquez broke the story in FrontPage Africa of a mother who reported the rape of her 11-year-old daughter to…
A Year’s Success – New Narratives Changing Media Landscape, Awards Fellows
When President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s attention was drawn to the award-winning ‘5 LD for Sex’ lead story carried in the FrontPageAfrica newspaper little was she and the rest of Liberia to realize that a brand new team of female journalists were just beginning to unearth untold societal issues. Covering issues of fistula, rape, abortion, female circumcision,…
Girl, 12, ‘Consented to Sex’: ‘If I Forced Her… Let Me Die’, Says Arrested Suspect
The man accused of raping a young girl in Congo Town recently has finally given his side of the story. The crime captured the attention of FrontPage Africa readers almost two weeks ago when the mother of the girl, Emma Seekey, accused police of beating and imprisoning her when she reported the attack. The accused…
New Drug Route Through West Africa Leaves Trail of Addicts
Cocaine trafficking through Liberia, a country with few effective counter narcotics programs, is on the rise. The United Nations says it’s exacerbating an addiction problem stemming from Liberia’s civil war. In a collaboration between New Narratives and Radio Veritas, Fabine Kwiah takes a closer look….