BUTAW, Sinoe County – Timothy Browne bought into the promises made by Singapore-owned palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) when they came to this rural area of Sinoe County with offers of jobs and development for the people here in exchange for 2,600 hectares of land. Browne even hosted one of the major meetings that…
Editor’s Note: This story is the first of a two-part series on growing tension between Equatorial Palm Oil and villagers in Grand Bassa County over land rights. JOGBAHN CLAN, Grand Bassa – October 6, 2016 was a happy day for Morris Beah and other townspeople of Gmenee, Wesseh Village, Paye Town, Morb Town and Kampala, which…
ZAMMIE TOWN, River Cess County – Water dictates the lives of people in this part of central River Cess. With just three hand pumps to supply a town of 7,000, women and children here wake as early as 3 am to fetch water from distant creeks. But the creek water carries dangers they say: contaminants from…
Coastal erosion caused by climate-induced rises in sea levels and intense tropical storms have already destroyed the homes of hundreds of Liberian families and put critical fisheries at risk. Nine of the country’s fifteen counties sit along the sea coast putting 60 per cent of the population at threat and causing tens of millions of…
By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – Forty years ago Atlantic Street was one of this port city’s busiest streets, humming with stores and chop shops. Today it is almost deserted. The encroaching shoreline has swallowed up structures and is threatening to take out the street itself. Bobby Gibson’s father used to run…
As the changing climate impacts more and more people worldwide, there are renewed efforts to protect the planet’s forests. Trees soak up the carbon that is the worst factor in causing climate change. Liberia’s forest is one of the largest remaining. But millions of Liberians rely on the forest’s bounty for their survival. As the…
Alex Weah had no clue that the sea would swallow up his home when he built his six bedroom house here. But the Community Youth Chairman and senior student at the United Methodist University watched helplessly in 2017 as the sea quickly overtook the house. “The sea was coming closer but we were thinking that…
MONROVIA – Waste plastic is becoming a scourge around the world but it is especially true here in Liberia’s capital city and its satellite sister, Paynesville. Discarded plastic is choking waterways, blocking drains, killing fish, and leaching harmful chemicals into the water and soil. By Tina S. Mehnpaine, with New Narratives With poor or limited waste management…
MONROVIA — A Monrovia court has sentenced Arthur Chan-Chan, a former agent of the National Security Agency, to 25 years in prison for human trafficking—the highest penalty yet for a convict of the crime in Liberia. The longest sentence until now was 20 years – following Liberia’s revision of the trafficking law making the minimum sentence…
MONROVIA, Liberia – A former agent of the National Security Agency has been found guilty of human trafficking, becoming the first person with a direct link to the Liberian government to be convicted of the charge. Following a landmark trial ten of the twelve jurors in the case at Criminal Court “A” said they agreed…
NGISAKONJA, Lofa County – Evelyn Pillo points to the spot where her father’s house once sat. It was here that her family endured the horrors that, she says, haunt them to this day. In 1993 when troops with the United Liberia Movement of Liberia (Ulimo) took control of this area for four months Pillo says…
Monrovia – It is two years since Sylvester Saye Lama lost his wife Gifty, the breadwinner of his family, under unusual circumstances. Gifty was one of four government auditors, tasked with uncovering government corruption, that were found dead in the space of weeks. Their deaths shocked the country, scared anti-corruption activists into silence, and raised…
In 2016 US-based Bridge International Came To Save Liberia’s Schools. In the first of a two-part investigation with New Narratives Eric Opa Doue finds Bridge schools doing little better than state schools. YARPAH TOWN, River Cess County – Babygirl Smith helps her mother to sell snacks at the town market every Monday. The 17-year-old should…
This two-part series examines the county’s school system. MONWEH, River Cess- Jacob Beegar sits on a rattan chair under a palaver hut while his friends run around. Jacob doesn’t join them. The 15-year-old doesn’t want to play. He would rather be in school. Jacob should be in the 4th grade at the nearby Giemengbleh Public…
PARIS, France—The lawyer for the ten plaintiffs who filed a formal complaint against Kunti Kamara, an accused Liberian warlord, says she’s hopeful he will be found guilty when the jury retires to consider their verdict next week. The defendant, 47, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted….
PARIS, France—Kunti Kamara has lashed out at the ten plaintiffs in his trial for crimes against humanity here calling them “criminals” and professing his innocence on charges of cannibalism, torture, rape, murder and forced labor….
Opinion PARIS, France – The trial of former Ulimo battalion commander, Kunti Kamara aka “Kunti K.” ends its third week. Kamara is being tried for crimes against humanity, torture, forced labor and acts of barbarism, in the town of Foya in Lofa Country, Western Liberia, where the accused has admitted he was stationed for four months…
PARIS, France – The judge in the ongoing war crimes trial of Kunti Kamara abruptly adjourned the hearing on Tuesday after an inconsolable witness began a graphic description of her alleged rape by a soldier under Kamara’s command. It was an emotional day of testimony that saw two witnesses break down in tears as they described…
PARIS, France – Alieu Kosiah, convicted of war crimes in a Swiss court last year, appeared as a defense witness in the trial of Kunti Kamara, his one-time United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy colleague today and rejected the charge that Kamara had committed cannibalism. Kosiah, who travelled from Switzerland under heavy guard, was not…
PARIS, France – A witness claiming to be a child soldier with Kunti Kamara has confirmed testimonies of over a dozen witnesses of forced labor by Kamara—one of the charges the former commander of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy faces at his war crimes trial here in Paris, France. The issue has been critical in…
BELLINZONA, Switzerland – In a dramatic third day in former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah’s appeal of his 2021 war crimes conviction, a plaintiff in the 2021 trial told the court he has been threatened, beaten and forced to flee his home because of his testimony. By Antoine Harari with New Narratives “When I came…
