Liberian justice advocates are pushing for stronger protections for victims as the country moves toward establishing a war crimes court. At a recent conference in Monrovia, human rights expert Elise Keppler stressed that crimes like forced marriage and other gender‑based abuses must be fully recognized in the court’s legislation to ensure meaningful justice. She said…
U.N. Begins Training Lawyers Ahead of War Crimes Court’s Establishment
Liberia is taking a major step toward long‑awaited justice as the U.N. Human Rights Office begins training 20 Liberian lawyers on prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity. The two‑day program aims to build local capacity ahead of a proposed war and economic crimes court, strengthening legal institutions and preparing lawyers who have never handled…
Defense Lawyers Claim Statute of Limitations Means Rebel Cannot be Tried For 1993 War Crimes
Defense lawyers representing former Liberian rebel commander, Kunti Kamara, are claiming that the statute of limitations means Kamara cannot be tried for 1993 War Crimes. According to them, it has been more than ten years from the time the crimes for which Kamara is accused were committed in Liberia, arguing, that it should be heard…
French Court Of Appeal Throws Out Rebel Commander Claim he was Underage When Crimes Took Place
The judge in former Liberian warlord, Kunti Kamara’s appeal of his 2022 conviction for war crimes, dealt a blow to Kamara’s case on Monday by striking out his two challenges to the charges.The former Ulimo rebel commander’s lawyers had introduced two new arguments in this appeal claiming that Kamara was 15 at the time the…
Lawyers for Former Rebel Commander Demand French Appeal Court to Acquit
As Kunti Kamara’s war crimes appeal enters the final stages, his lawyers are calling on the jury to reject the prosecutors’ plea of guilty due to the lack of sufficient evidence. They also want Kamara acquitted. Presenting their plea before the court Tuesday, his defense lawyers argued that the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence…
French Court of Appeal upholds Guilty Verdict for Liberian Warlord
The French Court of Appeal hand has found former Ulimo comer, Kunti Kamara guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, upholding his earlier 30-year sentence. In the French judicial system comprising 3 judges and 9 juries, the jury needed to have an innate belief in Kamara’s guilt to convict. A simple majority of jurors,…
Anti-Corruption Watchdog is dysfunctional, ending scrutiny of government one year from election
Three months since the government’s highly controversial decision to overhaul the Liberian Anti Corruption Commission the country’s independent corruption watchdog has been silenced. Staff say no investigations are being done and morale is at zero. Things have only become more uncertain with the news that the Supreme Court will consider whether the overhaul was constitutional….
Vigilante Mob Levels River Cess Village; Authorities Slow to Respond
Residents of Bethel in River Cess County say more than 100 men from nearby Bah Clan communities stormed their town after rumors falsely accused them of killing a missing hunter, leaving 24 homes and 27 rice kitchens burned and over 150 women and children sleeping under the palaver hut with almost nothing to eat. Survivors…
Saudi Rice Shipment Becomes Early Test of Boakai Government’s Anti-Corruption Drive, But Experts Say Delay in Trial is Undermining Trust
Flood victims in River Cess and Margibi say they were left hungry and abandoned after the 2024 rains destroyed their homes, even as officials promised help that never came. Their stories now sit at the center of a major corruption case involving 25,000 bags of Saudi‑donated rice that prosecutors say were diverted instead of reaching…
Saudi Rice Shipment Becomes Early Test of Boakai Government’s Anti-Corruption Drive, But Experts Say Delay in Trial is Undermining Trust
By Joyclyn Wea and Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon with New Narratives Summary: ITI VILLAGE, River Cess County -When the rain came hard in 2024, residents here in this village in the southern part of the county described a disaster: floodwaters swallowed roads, farms, and homes, stranding people and pushing families into makeshift shelters. In the same…
What can Liberia learn from South Africa about reconciliation and Commemoration?
Now a special report from Johannesburg South Africa. In November, our reporter Fatu Kamara traveled to the city thirty years after the end of the apartheid regime that segregated the population by race and brutally oppressed the black majority. South Africa’s first Black president Nelson Mandela famously championed reconciliation with former apartheid leaders even after…
Holidays, Museums, Statues. South Africans Commemorate Apartheid and Celebrate Heroes. What Can Liberia Learn?
R. Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives Tourists at Constitutional Hill watch a documentary on apartheid In South Africa In November 2023 New Narratives reporters, including R. Joyclyn Wea, traveled to South Africa to learn what the country has done to commemorate and reconcile after fifty years of apartheid and see what lessons there are for…
As President Boakai Promises War Crimes Justice, What Can Liberia learn from South Africa?
In this special report Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon goes to South Africa with the New Narratives team to report on the role of commemoration in the post-apartheid era. It’s 30 years since South Africa ended the government led racial segregation system that terrorized and discriminated against the country’s non-white populations. Though many feared the end of…
South Africa Makes Gains with Reconciliation 30 Years After Apartheid. What Can Liberia Learn?
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Apartheid was a vicious system of racism and racial separation that ended 30 years ago here, just as Liberia was winding down its first civil war. Since then, South Africa has emerged as an economic powerhouse that implemented a Truth and Reconciliation process that activists, economists, and…
A Lack of Trash Management Leaves Rural Liberians Battling Health Impacts
We all know waste management is a crisis in Monrovia and Paynesville where mounds of trash line streets and block drainage causing major headaches. But it’s also a problem across rural Liberia where there is very little or no waste collection at all. People are forced to burn their trash adding to air pollution and…
10 Dead, More Than 30 Missing in River Cess Mine Collapse
Video by Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives The mudslide in Chio Town has now claimed 11 lives, deepening the grief of a community already struggling to survive as injured residents receive little to no financial support. Survivors describe a night of chaos in which families dug through collapsing earth with their bare hands to…
Mudslide Death Toll Reaches 11 As Survivors Left without Financial Assistance, Struggle to Cater to Mediation and Needs
By Eric Opa Doue, Contributing Writer CHIO TOWN, River Cess—Aaron Harris, an injured person from the Chio Town mudslide who was being treated at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, was confirmed dead on Sunday morning by authorities. This brings the number of casualties to 11. Apart from the initial ten individuals who were…
How Will The Office For War Crimes Court Work? Who Will Lead It?
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives MONROVIA, Liberia— Liberia took a major step to end war time impunity this month when President Joseph Boakai issued an executive order to establish an office for a war crimes court to try those “bearing the greatest responsibility” for atrocities in civil wars that ended in 2003 and left…
Vigilante Mob Levels River Cess Village; Authorities Slow to Respond
By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives BETHEL, River Cess County — In the latest example of vigilante violence in Liberia, residents of this northern River Cess town say more than 100 men from neighboring communities in the Bah Clan stormed the village 10 days ago, beating residents and setting fire to homes and food…
Crisis in Rural Education Continues to End Student Dreams
Education has long been a distant hope for most young people in Liberia’s rural areas. While urban students find a way forward, rural students often find there is no school for them after the 6th or 9th grade. In this collaboration with New Narratives, reporter Siaway T. Miapue travels to Arthington in Montserrado County to…
Living in Hell” Experts Alarmed at Dramatic Increase in Street Children
A recently released survey has confirmed what child welfare advocates have long feared: The rising number of Liberians living in poverty has led to a huge number of children living on the streets. There were more than three hundred and sixty six thousand children living on their own in 2022. Sadly, experts say, with so…