KPANDU, LOFA COUNTY – Andrew Saah Kendema expected a big harvest, not the big fire that swept through his farm and thousands of acres of forest land in the Foya Tengia District of Lofa County in March this year. His sugarcane farm would have fetched him about 20 drums of liquor, enough returns on a US$10,000…
Liberia: Denied for Decades, Women Lead Land Rights Campaign in Bong
GOKAI TOWN, BONG COUNTY – Gormah Mulbah and her five children were thrown out of their home last year after her husband died. Her late husband’s family was angry she refused to marry his younger brother. While she thought all hope was lost, a man—whose identify she would not reveal over reprisal—confronted her in-laws over the…
Liberia: Villagers Hold Vigil outside Forestry Development Authority over Logging Dispute in Nimba
WHEIN TOWN, PAYNESVILLE – More than 60 townspeople of Doru chiefdom in the Gbi/Doru District of Nimba County spent the sixth straight night at the headquarters of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) here, demanding the cancellation of a logging contract between their community and the Liberia Tree and Trading Corporation (LTTC). LTTC, owned by former Representative…
VIDEO: Liberia’s Poor Hit Hard by Coronavirus Shutdown
Liberia extends the coronavirus state of emergency and passes a stimulus package for the poor. But the poorest Liberians, known as “zogos”, living on the streets, have received no relief. Anthony Stephens of Power TV reports that they are also now suffering brutality at the hands of security forces. Liberia’s Poor Hit Hard by Coronavirus…
VIDEO: Street Vendors Accuse Liberia’s Government of Rights Violations over Coronavirus Shutdown
Liberia declares a nationwide state of emergency with tougher restrictions to curb coronavirus. This comes 17 days after a health emergency order led to police demolishing market tables in the capital, Monrovia. Anthony Stephens of Power TV looks at the impact on street vendors, who say the actions are violating their rights. Street Vendors Accuse…
For This Survivor, The Civil War Still Rages On
PAYNESVILLE, Montserrado County, Liberia – In the quiet suburb of Cow Field community, in the Duport Road part of Paynesville, Tenneh Dolokon, 26, sits on a worn cushion and stares out at the marshland on the fringes of her unfinished house. She spends much of every day like this. Dolokon was a toddler in 1994, when…
“Bush School” Leaves Classrooms Empty at School Named after Former President Sirleaf
TODEE, Montserrado County, Liberia – In November, the current school year was just midway, but in Tumay Town, Todee District, it was already over for more than 100 girls at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Public School. They had abandoned their classrooms to attend Sande school. This contributed to a drop in enrollment from 250 students at…
Fernando Po Crisis and the Absence of Accountability in Liberia
MONROVIA, Liberia – The future was bright for Doboe-Blee Garley, a 20-year-old, newly-married man in 1926. Well built and outstanding in the Menson Clan of Tchien District in Grand Gedeh County, Garley was a great royal hunter and a farmer. His wife, Munah, had come from a long lineage of traditional priests. Excitedly, the newlyweds made…
Liberia: Prosecutions of Ex-ULIMO Generals Leave Foya Calling for Court
FOYA, Lofa County, Liberia – Mary Ndominin, now in her 50s, will never forget that day in September 1994 when a ULIMO commander aliased “Ugly Boy” killed her husband and ate his corpse. Rebels of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy seized Saah Ndominin, tied him up by passing a wire through a hole…
Liberia: Woman Claims Police Won’t Investigate Abduction
CONGO TOWN, Monrovia, Liberia – A woman who alleges she was abducted from outside her compound by unknown men, drugged, raped and dumped on the Robertsfield Highway, has accused the police of failing to launch an investigation into her ordeal. She claims the police are intimidating her and her visitors as she undergoes treatment in hospital. …
Illegal Sierra Leonean Miners Dying in Liberia
HENRY TOWN, Liberia and KENEMA, Sierra Leone – Ibrahim Sesay, a Sierra Leonean miner, never signed up to die when he crossed into Liberia in 2008 in search of greener pasture on mines in Korninga Chiefdom of Gbarpolu’s Bopolu District. A New Narratives cross-border investigation by Mae Azango and Emma Black in Sierra Leone and…
Mining Companies Battle COVID-19 After The Ebola Crisis
Between 2014 and 2017, Sierra Leone was hit by the Ebola virus along with Guinea and Liberia. The disease killed almost 4,000 people in Sierra Leone but perhaps the worst of the crisis was the brutalization of the economy, especially in the extractive sector. In March 2020, Sierra Leone recorded its first confirmed case of…
How Covid 19 Protections are Impacting Mining in Sierra Leone
On 31 March 2020, when Sierra Leone recorded its first case of COVID-19, the Government instituted measures to prevent the transmission of the virus. Many of these preventative measures are based on the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations. These measures have greatly impacted the lives of every…
Aftermath of London Mining Operation in Lunsar Cemetery Turned Dumpsite
The operations of the defunct London Mining PLC in Lunsar have left residents of Chindatta Village with bad feelings with regards the bulldozing of their ancestral graveyard without due process and without any regard for the dead. Chindatta village happened to be one of the communities affected by the operations of the company, and residents…
William Harmon Alum
William Q. Harmon is a political and environmental reporter at the Daily Observer newspaper. He has been a practicing journalist for over a decade having joined the Observer in 2011. William started as a roving reporter before settling into his preferred beats—political and environmental reporting. William provided coverage for the Executive Mansion for five years…
New Narratives launches Excellence in Extractives Reporting Project in Liberia and Sierra Leone
New Narratives kicked off an 18-month project this month reporting on the extractives sectors in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The project, supported by German Development Cooperation, will allow ten of the top journalists in each country to learn about and report on developments in these sectors which are crucial to the economies of both countries….
Crisis Roils the Catholic Church as NN Investigation Reveals Bishops’ Abuse of Power; Vatican Stays Silent
MONROVIA, Liberia – A leading priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Liberia has made explosive allegations against Arch Bishop Lewis Zeigler and Bishop Andrew Karnley roiling Catholic congregations in the country. In his testimony, sent to Pope Francis’s email address and by registered mail to the Vatican and to Reverend Monsignor Dagoberto Campos Salas, the…
The April Hoodoo Still Haunting Liberians
MONROVIA, Liberia – As Liberians cross off the final days of April, many still fear the April hoodoo or “misfortunes” could soon return. With recent demonstrations over economic inequality and former warlords causing chaos earlier this month, some fear the hoodoo could be working its juju. Liberia’s recent history has been marked by deadly events that…
Liberia: No Decoration for Forgotten ‘Death Hole’ Victims
DEATH HOLE, Monrovia, Liberia – Loud weeping and low meditations, wreaths on sparkling graves, radiant tombstones with prayers that the inhabitants “Rest in Peace”, quarrels over vaults and vandalism, too. These are some of the highlights of Decoration Day, observed this year on March 13. But the graveyard at the end of the runway of the…
Call for Journalists to Report on Justice Issues in Sierra Leone
West Africa Justice Reporting Project – Seeking Justice The Media and Information Bureau (MIB) in Sierra Leone is starting a new project with New Narratives, a non-governmental organisation that has been driving improvements in West African media for 9 years. The project supports journalists to cover justice issues. The project in Sierra Leone is part…