MONROVIA, Liberia — On Wednesday, Liberians will honor the memory of two former presidents, William Tolbert and his successor, Samuel K. Doe, slain during two decades of fighting that started with a 1980 military coup. The exact whereabouts of the ex-presidents’ remains is unknown. Both men were tossed into mass graves along with thousands of…
Liberian Teen Prostitutes Face Abuse
MONROVIA (Reuters Trustlaw) – When darkness falls on Monrovia and most of the Liberian capital’s half a million inhabitants return home to rest, an army of teenage girls as young as 13 sets out to work as underage prostitutes, charging as little as 5 Liberian dollars (3 U.S cents) to clients who often abuse them. “I…
As Bones Surface, Massacre Survivors Demand Collective Burial
During the Liberian civil war, tens of thousands of dead were buried in unmarked graves. Mass graves litter the country including the capital city Monrovia. As Fabine Kwiah reports some leaders are calling for these graves to be excavated and the bodies reburied. …
Liberian Government Neglects Mass Graves
It’s been seven years since the end of the civil war in Liberia, but there are still some gruesome reminders of the past. Mass graves haunt the capital. Former TRC Chairman Jerome Verdier is among several leading human rights advocates demanding the graves be opened and the dead be given proper burials. Tetee Gebro reports…
United Nations launches investigation into peacekeepers use of child and teen prostitutes after NN reporting exposes widespread practice
The UN Mission in Liberia has launched an investigation into the use of prostitutes by it’s 8000-strong force of peacekeepers in the country after NN fellows Clara Mallah and Tecee Boley reported on several young teenage girls who claimed to have slept with peacekeepers since they were as young as 9. The story entitled: “I…
“I Sleep with More than 20 Men a Night.” Teen Prostitution Grows in Monrovia
Rose is 15, and has been selling sex for money since the final chapter of the war in 2003, when she was eight. “I got on the street during World War III to prostitute. I am on the street to look for a living because I am from a poor background and I got no…
Fabine Kwiah Fellow
Fabine Kwiah is a reporter and newscaster at Radio Veritas where she presents the weekly Voices of Women program. She has been a New Narratives fellow since July 2011. In 2012 Fabine’s report on the impact of Liberia’s high rate of teenage pregnancy won her the national women’s reporting award. Fabine became one of a…
$5LD for Sex
By day, the infamous Anthony’s Provision Shop at the Lapazee, Airfield Community in Monrovia sells soap, creams and candies. By night, children use it to sell sex. “I have been on the street for so many years. Seven years on the street. I was just a baby. My parents are all dead and they left…
3 out of 8 Rape Victims Aged Under 12
Three-year-old Love walks uncomfortably into this clinic for victims of rape. A pretty little girl with braids, Love (not her real name) looks up nervously at her weeping mother. Love’s father is shaking with rage. “I just heard last night that some teenage boys had been tampering with her,” the father says to the clinician…
As Charles Taylor’s War Crimes Trial Nears End, Many Liberians Hope for His Return
MONROVIA, Liberia — With President Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial in The Hague nearing an end after three years, many Liberians hope he will be brought home — to a hero’s welcome. Take Fasu Donzo, a lanky motorbike taxi driver. Now 31, he fought as a child soldier in Taylor’s army and was known as…
‘BLEEDING PLENTY’: Unsafe Abortions Kill Liberian Women
For every three women who give birth at the James N. Davies Memorial Hospital in Monrovia, another woman is treated for complications after an unsafe abortion. Since January, the maternity hospital in Jacob Town has treated 281 women who have either tried to abort the baby themselves or paid someone else to do it. “They…
Birth Injury Maims Liberian Mothers
Across Liberia tens of thousands of women are quietly suffering from an injury that leaves them outcasts from friends and family. Fistula is an injury that occurs most often in childbirth when the woman does not have medical assistance. It is entirely preventable. It almost never happens in rich countries where all women have access…
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf calls on NN reporters to testify on Child Rape Expose.
NN reporters Clara Mallah of FrontPage Africa and Sonnie Morris of SkyFM have appeared at a panel convened by President Johnson Sirleaf and women’s rights activist Leymah Gbowee to testify on the widespread problems of child and teenage rape and prostitution in Liberia. In response President Johnson Sirleaf promised to build a safehouse for victims…
President responds to issues raised in NN reporting in the State of the Nation address. January 2011
Four months after NN reporting first caused an uproar in Liberia and the Diaspora by exposing the widespread reliance on prostitution by children as young as 9 to survive Liberia President Johnson Sirleaf has talked of the issues in her annual State of the Nation address. Saying she was keenly aware of how important Liberia’s…
War Ends, Rape Continues in Liberia
It is lunch time at the Light Stream Academy School on Pagos Island in Monrovia. The stretch of land, with more than 4000 inhabitants, is completely cut off from the rest of the capital. It is surrounded by swamps and marshland. The only access routes are by foot. Dozens of children, wearing green and white…
‘Up Jumps a Girl Into the Book’
Recess is over at a small church school on the edge of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Children wearing bright blue, yellow and white uniforms stream back into the classrooms. Seated behind brown wooden desks, with sweat just drying off of their little bodies, only a few children have pens and copy books. They are…
UN’s Female Role Models
Teachers and parents in Congo Town in Monrovia say since the arrival of the female Indian peacekeepers in Liberia, children’s views of women are gradually beginning to change. The female peacekeepers came to the country in 2007. Their job is to guard the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the President’s residence. But, the UN Gender Advisor…
Anti-Rape Activists Say Only Prosecutions Will End Violence
At least four rape cases are reported at health clinics in Monrovia every day, according to rape counselors. This rape epidemic means many girls are suffering physical and emotional trauma that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. But, one local organization called Touching Humanity in Need of Kindness, or THINK, is giving…
Is it time for a Liberian War Crimes Trial?
It has been more than a year since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report. Among the recommendations was the setting up of a war crimes court. Thousands of people died in the country’s 14 year civil war while human rights abuses were committed across Liberia. But is our country really ready for…
Children Having Sex for 3US cents
Children as young as ten are selling sex for as little as 5 Liberian Dollars, the equivalent of 3 US cents. They are using their bodies to pay for food, clothes and school fees – according to the NGO, Women’s Aid Incorporated. It says poverty is driving children onto the streets. Prostitution is illegal in…
Children Rented to Beg
Children are being rented to beg for blind people on the streets of Monrovia. That’s according to the Montserrado Super Intendent. Grace Kpan says although some of the kids may be related to the blind person, she fears in some cases the children may be rented. She says she is concerned about the number of…