The court will investigate crimes against humanity committed during the African country’s two civil wars between 1989 and 2003
Senators in Liberia have voted overwhelmingly to establish a war crimes court, two decades after civil conflict ended in the west African country.
The new court will investigate and try crimes against humanity and corruption committed during Liberia’s two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, which killed up to 250,000 people.
Continue reading...Joseph Boakai, 79, was helped away from podium during outdoor ceremony in sweltering heat
Liberia’s new president, Joseph Boakai, has recovered from an episode of heat-induced faintness that caused him to cut short his inauguration speech on Monday before being led off the podium, his party’s spokesperson said.
The 79-year-old, who defeated George Weah in a runoff election in November, was sworn in during an outdoor ceremony in sweltering heat in the west African nation’s capital, Monrovia.
Continue reading...Witnesses say people climbed on to vehicle to gather petrol after tanker overturned on roadside
More than 40 people have been killed and dozens badly burned when a petrol tanker exploded in central Liberia, the country’s chief medical officer has said.
Witnesses said people clambered on to the lorry to try collect petrol leaking from its tank after it crashed and tipped into a ditch along a road in Totota, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the capital Monrovia on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Jails are routinely severely overcrowded and access to basic medical facilities is lacking
Calls for reform of Liberia’s notorious prison system have intensified after more than 200 inmates held a protest at a facility in the northern Nimba county earlier this month over what they described as the government’s failure to provide them with adequate food and medication.
Complaints about the west African country’s prisons are longstanding. Prisons are routinely severely overcrowded and inmates suffer from a lack of access to basic medical facilities, sanitary items and uniforms.
Continue reading...Official GOP account deletes tweet featuring Liberian flag, which has single white star where Stars and Stripes has 50
The Republican party was embarrassed when a tweet from its official account celebrating Independence Day featured the wrong flag.
The tweet read: “247 years ago, our forefathers told Ol’ King George to get lost! Happy Independence Day from the GOP!”
Continue reading...Kunti Kamara given life sentence for complicity in crimes against humanity
A Paris court has made history in convicting a former Liberian rebel commander for complicity in crimes against humanity under the principle of “universal jurisdiction”.
Kunti Kamara was also found guilty acts of barbarity, including torture, cannibalism and forced labour during the country’s first civil war more than 25 years ago. He was given a life sentence.
Continue reading...Kunti Kamara charged with torture, cannibalism and complicity in crimes against humanity during civil war between 1989 and 1996
A former Liberian rebel commander will go on trial in Paris on Monday charged with acts of barbarity including torture, cannibalism, forced labour and complicity in crimes against humanity during the country’s first civil war more than 25 years ago.
It is the first trial in France of a non-Rwandan suspect accused of wartime atrocities since the special crimes against humanity tribunal was set up in Paris in 2012.
Continue reading...Mia Mottley is just one of a raft of strong women across the Caribbean and South America tackling society’s most pressing issues. The world could learn a lot from them
There is a common misconception that the developing world is full of archaic values and that women struggle to have their voices heard. The more countries I visit and the more female leaders I speak to, the more I am convinced the contrary is true.
In fact, those in positions of power worldwide could learn important lessons from these strong women when it comes to tackling some of society’s most pressing issues, including pandemics, the climate crisis, education and infrastructure.
Continue reading...Israeli foreign minister contacts Dominic Raab and says ‘Iran is not just an Israeli problem’
Israel has blamed Iran for a suspected drone attack on a tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two crew, including a British national, and has vowed a harsh response.
The Liberian flagged Mercer Street, which is linked to an Israeli tycoon, was hit off the coast of Oman late on Thursday in what is thought to have been a swarm attack involving multiple drones.
Continue reading...Alieu Kosiah gets maximum 20-year sentence in Switzerland’s first war crimes trial in a civilian court
A Liberian rebel commander has been sentenced in Switzerland to 20 years in jail for rape, killings and an act of cannibalism, in one of the first convictions over the west African country’s civil war.
The case was also Switzerland’s first war crimes trial in a civilian court. It involved 46-year-old Alieu Kosiah, who went by the nom de guerre “bluff boy” in the rebel faction Ulimo that fought former President Charles Taylor’s army in the 1990s.
Continue reading...At least four people have died in the epidemic, causing heightened alarm across west Africa
Health officials in Guinea are racing to contain a new outbreak of Ebola that has killed at least four people and raised concerns across west Africa, which previously suffered the worst from the virus.
On Monday morning, a fourth victim died in Guinea and four others are being treated in an isolation centre, suffering vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding. At least seven of the people who contracted the virus attended the funeral of a nurse in Goueke, a town near the Liberian border, on 1 February the government said on Sunday.
Continue reading...Health minister says officials ‘really concerned’ after three deaths from the infectious disease
Guinea has entered an Ebola “epidemic situation” with seven cases confirmed, including three deaths, a leading health official in the west African nation has said.
“Very early this morning, the Conakry laboratory confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus,” Sakoba Keita said after an emergency meeting in the capital.
Continue reading...Ugandan star among those taking to the airwaves with a message on how to avoid spreading Covid-19
Bobi Wine, a Ugandan musician and rising political force, has joined the likes of footballer-turned-president George Weah in resorting to song to help stem the spread of coronavirus in Africa.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, worked with fellow artist Nubian Li to release a song on Wednesday laced with east Africa’s signature rhumba melodies about the importance of personal hygiene.
Continue reading...We will be the group most affected by this outbreak. Governments must bury austerity and ensure care is adequately staffed and well-resourced
Imagine working in an underfunded, understaffed hospital facing a devastating disease outbreak. Imagine being forced to make impossible choices about who to treat and who to let die. Imagine coming home to your family, knowing you might be putting them at risk.
These are the awful situations we health workers faced in dealing with the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Libera. For me the greatest tragedy is hearing similar stories emerge from colleagues around the world who are up against the coronavirus. It terrifies me to see that developed countries health systems are at breaking point – I hate to imagine what this virus might do to my region next.
Continue reading...Governments warn disease will cause huge challenges for continent’s health services
Countries across Africa have imposed wide-ranging and stringent new measures as the coronavirus begins to spread more rapidly across the continent.
Though the continent is still far behind Europe and Asia in the total numbers of Covid-19 cases, the disease has now reached about half of its countries. Algeria has 48 confirmed cases, Egypt 110, while South Africa has 62, according to the World Health Organization and national governments on Monday. Other countries have fewer cases, mostly in single figures.
Continue reading...By providing free school meals to some of the poorest children on Earth, a UK charity is also ensuring they get an education
It’s breakfast time in Domagbamatma (population: 63) in the depths of the Liberian rainforest, but there’s no food in evidence in the home of Massa Kamara. The eight-year-old has been up since dawn, collecting firewood, fetching water.
Now she’s ready for school in a crisp white shirt and navy-blue skirt in her family’s muddy, two-room shack.
Continue reading...Palm plantations are fuelling a booming international trade but the people who live on its edges feel forgotten
The sign at the entrance to the palm oil plantation in Grand Bassa has faded thanks to Liberia’s relentless cycle of scorching sun and torrential rain. Even so, it’s possible to make out the phrase: “Your community is rich: Let’s have a fair share.”
Several miles farther on, past endless rows of carefully cultivated palm trees, it’s a slogan that bears little relation to reality. Gbenee Town is a small huddle of huts surrounded by a plantation more than six times the size of London’s Richmond Park.
Continue reading...Agnes Taylor accused of offences that allegedly occurred during Liberian war
A judge in London has dismissed torture charges against the ex-wife of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
The university lecturer Agnes Taylor, 54, was charged in 2017 with a string of offences alleged to have taken place in 1990 during the west African country’s civil war.
Continue reading...Faced by a ‘rising chorus of voices’, not least that of legislator Rustonlyn Dennis, President George Weah is considering setting up a long-awaited tribunal into decades-old war crimes
As a child in Liberia’s first civil war, Rustonlyn Dennis remembers seeing dead bodies in the street. In 1991, her immediate family managed to get out of the shattered capital, Monrovia, and survived, but a dozen relatives starved to death.
Civilians were attacked, child soldiers recruited and ethnic groups were targeted in that war, setting a pattern for many of the wars that were to follow on the African continent. Hundreds of thousands of people died.
Continue reading...Ex-footballer under pressure 18 months into presidency, as thousands take to the streets
Thousands of people have gathered in Liberia’s capital to protest against failures to tackle corruption, economic mismanagement and injustice under the former footballer turned president George Weah.
Riot police lined the streets of Monrovia where more than 5,000 people turned out despite the rain for one of the city’s biggest protests in living memory, according to witnesses. The protesters walked to Capitol Hill to present the government with a list of demands.
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