• Women have not played a major visible role in recent efforts for postwar justice despite being key targets of much of the violence of the war years. A new project aims to change that by strengthening women’s groups and bringing more women, including young women, into peacebuilding and justice discussions.
• Women leaders say they have been discouraged from coming forward to play a more central role in the process by harassment and attacks.
• Leaders of the US$3 million project headed by say women should not be seen only as victims of the civil wars. They should also lead investigations, prosecutions, reparations and other parts of the justice, reconciliation and commemoration process.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives

More than two decades after Liberian women helped played a decisive role in bringing the country’s civil wars to an end, they have been far less visible in the renewed push to reckon with the wars’ atrocities committed during them.

No woman was shortlisted to lead the Office of the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court of Liberia, and many of the major groups shaping the process are headed by men. Women are involved — including in senior positions and through women-led organizations — but they have been less prominent in some of the key leadership and decision-making spaces.

Women leaders have told FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that they have been reluctant to speak up on the postwar justice process because of attacks and belittling that they have been subjected to in the past.

A new US$3 million initiative is seeking to boost women’s involvement. The project, called the “Gender Promotion Initiative 2.0,” rolled out last week by the Liberian government, the United Nations, Kvinna till Kvinna and other partners, aims to strengthen women’s organizations and bring more women, including young women, into peacebuilding and justice discussions. The three-year project will be implemented in Montserrado, Lofa, Nimba, Grand Gedeh and Grand Cape Mount. The United Nations says more than 40 percent of its resources will go directly to women’s rights organizations.

Mabel M.K. Kear, programme manager at Kvinna till Kvinna, called the initiative “a critical promise that the sacrifices of women and communities will lead to transformation,” adding that reconciliation should be genuine and “peace will be sustained through justice.”

More than 250,000 people were killed during Liberia’s 14 years of civil conflict, according to the United Nations. A 2016 United Nations human rights report said 1.5 million people were displaced inside Liberia or sought refuge in other countries. The report cited a 2005 estimate that 75 percent of Liberian women and girls were subjected to wartime rape.

Liberia’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that “women were singled out for abuse simply on account of their gender.” It also found that forced displacement “took a particularly heavy toll on women,” many of whom became heads of their families after losing their spouses.

But women were also central to in ending the fighting. Christian and Muslim women joined forces through the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, staging protests, prayer meetings and other nonviolent actions and taking their demands for peace to negotiations in Accra, Ghana. It was there that they staged a daring threat to undress. This was a cultural signal that the men could not ignore. They swiftly brought the negotiations to a successful conclusion. Leymah Gbowee, as one of the group’s leaders, was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their actions.

Asatu Bah Kenneth, was one of those leaders fighting for the end of the war in 2003. Today she is the most senior woman working in the court process as the director of the Office of War and Economic Crimes Anti-Corruption Division. Kenneth also founded and led the Liberia Muslim Women for Peace, which joined the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, whose sustained nonviolent campaign helped pressure Liberia’s warring parties toward peace in 2003.

Women-led groups, including the Female Lawyers Association of Liberia and the Women’s NGO Secretariat of Liberia, are also involved in the current justice process.

That history returned to the international stage this week. The Liberian government held a high-level event on women, peace and security at United Nations headquarters in New York on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, celebrating women’s historic role in the country’s peace process while calling for greater leadership by women and girls. The event, organized by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, was held under the theme “From Pioneers to Global Leaders: Liberia’s Journey in Women, Peace and Security.”

President Joseph Boakai used the event to link that legacy to women’s participation in justice today. Launching Liberia’s third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, he identified participation and access to justice among its priorities and reaffirmed his commitment to establishing the War and Economic Crimes Court. Boakai used the event to highlight women’s role in national decision-making.

“In Liberia, men make the big decisions, the women make the small decisions, but the women decide which decisions are big and which decisions are small,” Boakai said.

Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee, who helped lead the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, used the same event to recall how women organized and pushed for peace despite initially being excluded from important spaces.

“Contrary to popular belief that we were a bunch of women who had no strategic direction, we had a direction,” Gbowee said.

The renewed focus on women’s participation comes at a pivotal stage in the effort to establish the court. Boakai submitted legislation to establish the War and Economic Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court to the Legislature in May. Weeks earlier, he had renewed the mandate of the Office for the Establishment of a War and Economic Crimes Court of Liberia.

The Legislature is considering competing proposals from the Liberian National Bar Association, a civil society coalition led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, as well as Senate President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and Senator Joseph Jallah.

For supporters of the new gender initiative, the challenge is ensuring that women have a greater role as those decisions are made.

Christine N. Umutoni, the United Nations resident coordinator in Liberia, said the initiative should build on a voice Liberian women have already established rather than treat their participation as something new.

“Liberian women helped end the conflict,” Umutoni said. “So it is not now that we are building the voice.”

The challenge, she said, is ensuring that women’s experiences are reflected throughout the justice process. She warned that “a gender-blind approach would leave serious violations insufficiently addressed and risk weakening public confidence in justice institutions.”

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union. The funders had no say in the story’s content.

Summary:

• Liberia’s leading war crimes investigation group has again relocated a senior nvestigator after death threats allegedly linked to sympathizers of Moses Wright, a former Liberian army commander accused of masterminding the 1990 St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Massacre, ahead of his November trial in the United States.
• The threats renew concerns over the safety of witnesses and investigators as Liberia moves toward establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court.
• Liberia’s police chief promises to follow up after war crimes group accuses police of ignoring complaints about threats and an earlier armed break-in.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

The head of Liberia’s leading war crimes investigation group said the organization has again relocated a senior investigator for his safety after he received repeated death threats connected to his work on the case of Moses Wright, the former Liberian army commander who is set to go to trial for war related crimes in the United States in November.

Hassan Bility, head of the Global Justice and Research project said the investigator, whom he declined to identify because of security concerns, received threatening text messages from people he described as “sympathizers” of Wright. The investigator had initially been relocated before the threats escalated and the organization moved him to another location, Bility said. He had also received psychosocial counselling because of the trauma.

The revelation came at the start of a two-day event to review the five-year strategic plan of the Witness Protection Agency, the government institution responsible for protecting witnesses, victims and whistleblowers from threats, intimidation, retaliation and political coercion.

“This is very, very troubling,” Bility said. “So, an investigator is threatened. What about the witnesses and and victims?”

Experts said the threats highlight a growing challenge for Liberia’s efforts to hold people accountable for crimes committed during its civil wars: protecting the witnesses and investigators. The danger is taking on new urgency as Liberia moves toward establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court, which would depend heavily on witnesses willing to testify about atrocities committed decades ago, and the investigators pursuing evidence, while allies of accused perpetrators inevitably threaten and intimidate them and their families.  

Investigations and documentation by the Global Justice and Research Project and its Swiss partner, Civitas Maxima, working with authorities in foreign jurisdictions, have helped build cases in the United States and Europe against more than a dozen people accused of crimes connected to Liberia’s civil wars. But the work has also exposed investigators and witnesses to threats and intimidation. Global Justice has previously relocated witnesses because of concerns for their safety.

The relocation comes about seven months after three armed men broke into the organization’s compound in February. Bility said the investigator began receiving threats around the same time as the break-in and that the organization reported both matters to the Liberia National Police.

As the threats continued, Bility said, the organization moved the investigator from his home and relocated him elsewhere in Liberia. But he said the messages continued after the relocation and appeared to indicate that those sending them knew he had moved.

Bility said the organization received no response from the police to its complaints and eventually concluded that relocating the investigator again was the only viable option.

“We count on the Liberian government to do something to protect witnesses and those who investigate these kinds of international crimes,” Bility said.

Gregory Coleman, Liberia’s police inspector general, said in a WhatsApp message to FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that he would follow up on the complaints.

Bility said the threats had left him worried about the safety of his staff but would not stop the organization’s investigations.

“I feel a little bit scared for my staff,” he said.

Wright, 73, is a former commanding general of the Armed Forces of Liberia. He has been accused of commanding the army during the period in which the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Massacre was carried out, one of the most notorious atrocities of Liberia’s civil wars. An estimated 600 civilians, including men, women and children who had sought refuge at the church in Monrovia, were killed in the space of hours with guns and machetes.

No one has been criminally prosecuted for the massacre. But in 2022, a U.S. federal court ordered Moses Thomas to pay US$84 million to four survivors after finding the former commander of the Armed Forces of Liberia’s Special Anti-Terrorist Unit civilly liable for the killings. Thomas rejected the ruling and fled the United States for Liberia to avoid having future income seized to pay victims.

Wright is not being prosecuted for the Lutheran Church massacre or for war crimes directly, because international crimes committed out of the U.S. were not crimes in U.S. law in 1990. His federal prosecution, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, instead alleges that he committed criminal immigration fraud when he lied about his wartime conduct while seeking U.S. immigration benefits and citizenship. It is the same legal approach used to secure convictions by the same federal court against Mohamed Jabateh of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia or Ulimo faction in 2017 and Tomas Woewiyu, Charles Taylor’s number two, in 2018.

Wright was granted asylum in the United States in 2000 and became a lawful permanent resident in 2008. He applied for U.S. citizenship in 2013.

A federal grand jury indicted Wright in 2021, though the indictment remained sealed until U.S. prosecutors announced the charges in June 2022. He was charged with fraudulently attempting to obtain U.S. citizenship, fraud in immigration documents, false statements in relation to naturalization and perjury.

Prosecutors allege that Wright either personally committed or ordered AFL troops under his command to commit atrocities, including the persecution and murder of civilian noncombatants, assault, false arrest and false imprisonment. Wright denies the charges.

If convicted, Wright faces a maximum possible sentence of 165 years in prison and a US$7 million fine, according to U.S. prosecutors.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union. The funders had no say in the story’s content.

Summary:

• In an exclusive interview, Sweden’s ambassador Karl Backéus has pledged the country will continue to support Liberia’s postwar justice efforts through the U.N., E.U. and other multilateral institutions even as it ends direct assistance to the country.
• Backéus said he hopes lawmakers will pass a bill to establish a war and economic crimes court “in the next few months.” He says international backing will depend on a “robust and strong” court, and financial ownership by the government.
• Backéus said he sees progress in  fight against corruption, but says major problems remain, citing concerns about corruption cases being delayed.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

Sweden’s ambassador to Liberia has used an exclusive interview with Frontpage Africa/New Narratives marking the end of the country’s sixteen years of direct bilateral support since the end of the war, to reaffirm his government’s commitment to Liberia’s post war justice and accountability process.  

Ambassador Karl Backéus said the Swedish government, which was one of the country’s most generous donors until last month, will continue supporting post-war justice efforts through the United Nations, European Union and other multilateral institutions. And he added his voice to international diplomats urging Liberia’s lawmakers to approve legislation establishing a war and economic crimes court within the next few months.

“I really fundamentally do believe that, as part of the reconciliation process in Liberia, there is a need for accountability,” said Backéus. “And even though it has taken a very long time, I do think it needs to move forward.”

Sweden’s commitment comes at a pivotal moment for Liberia’s long-running quest for accountability. More than two decades after the civil wars ended, no one has been prosecuted in Liberia for the widespread wartime atrocities documented by the country’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Six competing proposals involving a War and Economic Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court are before the Legislature, while questions remain over how the costly courts will be financed as international development funding shrinks. Sweden has been the major international donor to Liberia’s war crimes court process and was in recent years, the second largest bilateral donor after the United States.

Sweden announced last year that it was ending support to five African countries, including Liberia, in order to bolster support to Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russia. The government sees Russian aggression in Europe as a major threat to its own security.

The decision was a major blow for Liberia. Under its 2021–2025 cooperation strategy, Sweden committed about US$190 million to 39 projects spanning human rights, rule of law, governance, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality, agriculture, infrastructure, independent media and climate and environmental protection. (New Narratives was a recipient of support.)

Liberia could continue to benefit from Sweden’s regional and thematic development programs, covering areas including gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, democracy and human rights, peace and security, climate and sustainable development. Backéus said the European Union would be particularly important because Sweden, as an E.U. member, contributes to its funding. He also pointed to cooperation between Sweden and Liberia at the United Nations, including through the Peacebuilding Commission.

But Sweden’s future commitments to Liberia and Africa in general will depend heavily on the outcome of national elections to elect all 349 seats of the Riksdag held on the weekend. It’s turned into a genuine cliffhanger: early results put the opposition centre-left bloc, led by former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats, narrowly ahead of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s outgoing centre-right coalition. The race is too close to call.

Under Sweden’s outgoing government, Sida — the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency — has faced four consecutive years of cuts, with its 2026 budget reduced by roughly 20 percent as part of a broader shift that abandoned Sweden’s long-standing target of spending one percent of gross national income (GNI) on aid. Aid to Africa is projected to fall by two-thirds between 2021 and 2026.

Across the opposition bloc, the rhetoric is consistently pro-aid, but the near-term budgets tell a different story. Every opposition party still cuts aid in 2026 relative to pre-2023 levels — just less than the government — and none has taken a specific position on reversing the five-country phase-out that includes Liberia.

For now, Backéus said, post war justice and accountability is a priority. Sweden provided nearly $1 million to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Liberia, which has in turn provided furniture and technical support to the government office preparing for the proposed court. Backéus said he hopes that will continue.

“If we can be supportive of that, we want to be,” Backéus said. “We want to continue to stay engaged in this.”

A recent FrontPage Africa/New Narratives survey of 1,150 people across 11 of Liberia’s 15 counties found 91 percent wanted the court, while 89 percent said they would not vote for lawmakers who failed to support legislation establishing one. The survey was not conducted under scientific polling standards. Backéus said it was a strong sign of public sentiment.

“I think it really shows that this is something that’s there’s broad support throughout society in Liberia, through communities all over the country for this important process,” Backéus said.

But he acknowledged the legal complexity of the competing proposals and said lawmakers needed to be confident that whatever legislation they approved was legally sound.

“But at the end of the day, of course, we want to see progress,” he said. “So I hope that we will see that in the next few months.”

Backéus said the precise model was ultimately Liberia’s decision, but international partners would need confidence in the institution before backing it.

“We need, of course, to have something that’s robust and strong,” he said. “And then, with that, I think the international community will continue to be there.”

He identified one potential obstacle to Swedish support: the possibility that the court could impose the death penalty.

“From the Swedish side. We would struggle, I think, to support any court that could, at least in theory, sentence people to the death penalty,” Backéus said. “That would not be consistent with our principles that we stand for.”

Financing presents another challenge. Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court, has estimated that establishing and operating the court would cost at least US$20 million.

Backéus warned that international financing for tribunals is far more limited than it was 10 or 20 years ago, pointing to the heavily internationally financed Special Court for Sierra Leone as a model Liberia should not expect donors to replicate.

“Sweden will not be able to provide that kind of funding,” he said. “So there needs to be a stronger ownership for for this also financially from the Liberian side.”

Still, Backéus said he believed political commitment to the court had grown significantly in Liberia and that a less expensive model than some previous international tribunals was possible.

Backéus said Sweden had spent years building the capacity of Liberian institutions and organizations and had worked with partners to prepare them for the transition away from Swedish funding. He singled out support for independent media as an example of an investment he expected to endure.

“One example is, and I’m saying this because I’m talking to you right now, but you know, independent quality journalism, that kind of legacy will live on long after Swedish funding will end,” he said.

Backéus said he was confident Sweden had made a lasting difference and hoped its withdrawal would not leave many unfinished programs.

Backéus also praised Liberia’s democratic resilience in a West African region where several countries have experienced democratic backsliding, highlighting freedom of speech and a free press. But he said corruption remained a serious concern. The embassy has had a major focus on anti-corruption and accountability efforts with funding support to groups including the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia and Naymote Partner for Democratic Development.

“I think we are seeing some positive trends in that area, without a doubt,” he said. “A lot of work remains to be done, and I think it’s important to recognize that corruption is still a major challenge.”

He specifically raised concern about delays in corruption cases brought by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and expressed disappointment over the limited number of convictions and sentences.

The concern has also been raised by Liberia’s own anti-corruption authorities. The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission that it conducted 44 investigations in 2025 and completed 29. It secured six indictments, resulting in three convictions and one acquittal during the year. The commission has blamed court congestion and the absence of a specialized anti-corruption court for delays in resolving cases.

“I think that’s part of the challenge with the capacity constraints in the legal system, and that there are too many cases that the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission is bringing to the courts that are delayed,” Backéus said.

He said the proposed National Anti-Corruption Court could help address those constraints.

Backéus, who has traveled to Harper, Robertsport, Nimba, Lofa and other parts of Liberia, said the country also had enormous potential to build a tourism industry around its coastline, forests and other natural attractions.

“There’s so many beautiful spots for nature and tourist potential. I think is almost endless here,” he said.

But he said realizing that potential would require better roads, reliable electricity, investment and skilled workers.

“So I think potential is there,” he said. “It’s going to take time to develop that as well, but I definitely think it’s there.”

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union. The funders had no say in the story’s content.

Summary

• Transitional justice expert Aaron Weah warns that failure to approve legislation establishing Liberia’s long-delayed War and Economic Crimes Court could create new security risks, particularly among a young generation raised on memories of the civil wars.
• Liberia is preparing to assume the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council in December, putting a renewed international spotlight on the country’s unfinished transitional justice process.
• Weah says Liberia must address how the wars are remembered and taught, warning that the absence of an agreed historical narrative, public memorials and museums has left younger Liberians exposed to disinformation about the conflict.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

Aaron Weah, the leading historian and transitional justice expert, has warned of security risks if the country fails to approve legislation establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court before it assumes the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council in December.

Despite years of advocacy, the push for a long-delayed court to prosecute those accused of “bearing the greatest responsibility” for atrocities committed during Liberia’s two civil wars, which the United Nations estimates left about 250,000 people dead, remains unfinished as the Legislature has so far failed to overcome opposition to the courts among lawmakers.

A recent poll by FrontPage Africa/New Narratives found 89 percent of survey respondents in 11 counties wanted to see the worst perpetrators tried in a war crimes court for atrocities committed during the war.

“You don’t want to raise expectations of people and let them down. I think it has a lot of security risk because we have a youthful population,” Weah, director of the Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research, said in a FrontPage Africa/New Narratives interview.

Weah’s warning comes at a pivotal moment for Liberia’s unfinished transitional justice process. The country is preparing to preside over the Security Council for the first time while lawmakers consider competing proposals for the long-promised court. At the same time, a population dominated by young people who did not directly experience the wars is confronting unresolved questions about justice, reparations and how the conflict should be remembered and taught.

Weah said establishing the court is about more than prosecuting alleged perpetrators. He argued that it could help clarify Liberia’s wartime history and said abandoning the process after years of promises could create new resentment and security concerns.

His warning echoes concerns raised by the Liberian government and the United Nations. In an October 2025, statement to the U.N. General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, which deals with international legal issues, the government warned that “the absence of justice perpetuates the cycle of conflict.”

The United Nations has also linked the proposed court to preventing recurrence. Christian Mukosa, its top human rights official in Liberia, said that operationalizing a victim-centered court could “contribute to reconciliation and prevent recurrence.”

According to Liberia’s 2022 Population and Housing Census, three in every four of the country’s 5.25 million people were 35 or younger. Forty four  percent of the population was born after the civil wars ended in 2003. Weah said many young Liberians have instead grown up with memories of the wars passed down by their parents. After taking the court process this far, he warned, abandoning it could have consequences beyond the justice debate.

Liberia previously served on the Security Council in 1961, but the December presidency will be its first time chairing the body. The 81st United Nations General Assembly began September 8, with President Joseph Boakai expected to deliver his third address during the General Debate, which begins September 22.

Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court, recently urged Boakai to recall lawmakers from their annual constituency break to act on the legislation.

Six proposals involving a War and Economic Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court are before the Legislature. They include proposals from the Liberian National Bar Association and a civil society coalition led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights; separate proposals from Senate President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and Senator Joseph Jallah; and two bills from the government’s court office.

Boakai reenergized the process when he renewed the Office’s mandate in May and later submitted its bills to the Legislature. But lawmakers went on their annual constituency break in July without approving legislation.

Before the recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee began consultations aimed at harmonizing the proposals, while more than 40 House members participated in a two-day technical session in Buchanan in June.

Some proposals have raised concerns among justice advocates over issues including the role of international experts and the appeals process. Senator Jallah has suggested international lawyers could serve as “consultants to Liberians”, rather than take direct roles.

“The final bill should include all benchmarks of fair, independent, meaningful and credible trials: crimes and modes of liability in line with international standards,” Michelle Reyes Milk, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, wrote in Just Security, a nonpartisan law and policy journal based at New York University School of Law. She also called for “full guarantees of due process for defendants” and “genuine participation and protection for victims and witnesses.”

Weah said Liberia’s Security Council role could showcase the country’s progress since the wars. He pointed to the success of international peacekeeping and the peaceful resolution of the closely fought 2023 presidential election as signs of the country’s resilience.

But he warned that sustaining that progress requires Liberia to confront how its wars are remembered and taught to younger generations.

“We have no public memorials. We have not agreed on a historical text on the war to teach kids in school,” Weah said. “And so much of what the children learn that’s passed for history is mostly the opinions of history teachers, is the opinions of civic teachers in school, and that’s dangerous.”

Weah said museums, memorials and other forms of public education could give younger Liberians a more structured understanding of the country’s past and help address violent memories transmitted from one generation to another.

Liberia has made some steps up efforts to address memorialization. A high-level government delegation has returned from a United Nations Development Program-supported study mission to Rwanda and South Africa in late August and early September, where it examined approaches to reconciliation, memorialization, peacebuilding and preserving national history. The lessons are expected to inform President Boakai’s proposed Liberia Peace, Reconciliation and Memorial Museum, envisioned as a national institution to preserve the country’s history, promote reconciliation and strengthen civic education.

TRC’s Controversial Decision to Sanction President Johnson Sirleaf Remains a Point of Debate

But Liberia’s efforts to establish an authoritative account of the wars have themselves generated controversy. More than 15 years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final report, parts of its findings remain contested.

The commission recommended a 30-year public-office ban for a number of people, including then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, because it said they had been associated with former warring factions. In 2011, Liberia’s Supreme Court struck down the sanction as unconstitutional, finding that it had been imposed without due process.

In testimony to the U.S. Congress in June 1990, as Taylor’s rebellion was terrorizing people across the country, Sirleaf portrayed Taylor’s uprising as a broad-based struggle, saying people, “many of them children,” had joined what she called a “struggle for freedom,” and describing the rebellion as an opportunity to transform Liberia’s political system. (Taylor’s alleged use of child soldiers was seen as a particularly egregious act that was copied by other warring factions in years to come.)

Weah argued that the commission’s treatment of Sirleaf contributed to her reluctance to champion implementation of its recommendations and questioned whether the report sufficiently established the extent of her involvement in the conflict.

“I think she felt embarrassed. She felt stigmatized,” Weah said. “Before you mention the names of people in report, there has to be a duty of care to make sure that your work is thorough, is rigorous. It can stand up to basic scrutiny.”

John Stewart, a commissioner who chaired the committee that wrote the TRC report, rejected Weah’s criticism. He said Sirleaf was sanctioned because commissioners concluded that her testimony about when she distanced herself from Charles Taylor conflicted with evidence they had obtained.

“We did not do so because we wanted to embarrass Sirleaf,” Stewart said. “We did so because we wanted to be fair to all others. And her being president was no exception to the rule.”

The disagreement underscores the difficulty Liberia still faces in establishing a broadly accepted account of its violent past — the problem Weah says younger generations should not be left to navigate alone.

Against that backdrop, Weah recently co-launched Liberia: Remembering the Future with British journalist Gerry Naughton. The podcast, airing on 10 radio stations across Liberia, examines the country’s history, its transition from war to peace and its election to the Security Council.

Weah said the project aims to provide historical context and clarification for Liberians, particularly younger people, as well as international audiences seeking to understand the country as its global profile rises.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union. The funders had no say in the story’s content.

Summary

• War Crimes Court Cffice chief Jallah Barbu has urged President Joseph Boakai to recall lawmakers from their annual constituency break for a special session to act on legislation establishing the court.
• Barbu wants action before Boakai attends the U.N. General Assembly starting on September 8, as Liberia prepares for a prominent international role on the Security Council.
• The call comes as survivors and advocates call for urgent action on a national fund to provide reparations for people still living with the consequences of Liberia’s civil wars.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

PAYNESVILLE CITY, Montserrado County—Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court, has urged President Joseph Boakai to exercise his constitutional power by recalling lawmakers from their annual constituency break to act on legislation establishing the long-promised court.

Speaking Saturday at a Paynesville hotel during the 17th anniversary celebration of the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, the country’s largest group representing victims and survivors of the civil wars, Barbu said lawmakers cannot wait.

“Mr. President, please, we begging you. These people they not coming until October,” said Barbu in Liberian English, drawing applause from an audience that included war victims and survivors. “Call them back right now to pass this law here. Don’t waste time. Call them back let them pass the law before you go to the GA[United Nations General Assembly]. It can happen.”

The appeal adds new urgency to Liberia’s long-running effort to establish a court for crimes committed during its civil wars, with competing proposals still before lawmakers more than two decades after the conflicts ended. Advocates see Boakai’s appearance at the U.N. General Assembly as an opportunity to demonstrate progress on accountability as Liberia assumes a more prominent international role, including its two-year term on the U.N. Security Council and its scheduled presidency of the Council in December. Transitional justice was not a stand-alone pillar of Liberia’s campaign for the Council’s seat, but key members of the international community have made it clear that they expect Liberia to have made meaningful progress on wartime justice before it takes is seat as chair on the Security Council. They also flag this as an important opportunity to encourage international support for the court.

The Legislature, which has the constitutional authority to establish courts, is considering six proposals: bills from the Liberian National Bar Association and a civil society coalition led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights; separate proposals from Senate President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and Senator Joseph Jallah; and two bills from the government’s court office establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court.

In May, Boakai renewed efforts to establish the courts. The Office subsequently submitted its bills, but lawmakers went on their annual constituency break in July without passing them.

The Constitution gives the president authority to convene the Legislature in an extraordinary session when the public interest requires it. Since taking office in January 2024, Boakai has recalled lawmakers from legislative breaks three times, although one recall, in August 2024, followed a request from lawmakers themselves. The current break began July 17 and runs until the second Friday in October. 

For court advocates, passage would give Boakai tangible progress to point to internationally on an accountability process that has remained unfinished since Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended a special criminal court in its 2009 final Report.

But for Rebecca Sonyah, 70, the significance is far more personal.

Sonyah, the mother of Peterson Sonyah, executive director of the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, lost her husband — Peterson’s father — and six other relatives in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church massacre, in which an estimated 600 men, women and children were killed. Peterson and nine others survived the carnage. Sonyah, who said she was inside the church’s school building when the massacre unfolded, was left to raise Peterson and four of his siblings on her own.

Sonyah said she had previously advised her son against advocating for the court but changed her mind as the campaign became a national issue.

“The war crimes court [is] important because people fini doing the killing they are free,” Sonyah told FrontPage Africa/New Narratives on the sidelines of Saturday’s event. “So many years have gone by. Other people just grieving in their hearts. Some people caused people suffering. Then they sitting down relaxing, enjoying. So, whatever you do, you have to pay the consequence.”

Even among court supporters, there is no consensus over the final legislation. One major disagreement concerns appeals. Karnga-Lawrence and Jallah want appeals from the proposed court ultimately routed through Liberia’s Supreme Court. In a 2025 interview with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives, Jallah also sought to restrict international participation, saying foreign lawyers and judges could serve as “consultants to Liberians” but could not appear before the court unless otherwise agreed by the Supreme Court.

But international and national experts have dismissed the idea that the court could happen without internationals playing key roles. United Nations and other key officials from European governments have warned that they would not recognize the court unless it was a hybrid domestic/international court separate from Liberia’s legal system. Tiawan Gongloe, a veteran human rights lawyer, rejected the argument that the Supreme Court’s constitutional status prevents a special court from having its own appeals chamber.

“All constitutions in the world have a clear provision that the Supreme Court is the highest in the land. Sierra Leone and Rwanda have the same provisions in their constitutions, yet they had war crimes courts that had appeal chambers,” said Gongloe, under whose tenure as national president of the Liberian National Bar Association the organization submitted its hybrid court bill in 2021. “Liberia cannot have that unique,” Gongloe said. “We don’t want this ‘made in Liberia’ that makes us look bad all the time. We are a party to the Geneva Convention. We are a member of the international community.”

The Office’s proposal has also faced criticism. Among the concerns are provisions allowing the prosecution of former child soldiers recruited between the ages of 15 and 18 for atrocities allegedly committed after they turned 18. The bill also includes genocide, terrorism and mercenarism within the proposed court’s jurisdiction.

Another issue raised during discussions over the bill has been the appointment of the proposed court’s registrar, one of its most senior administrative officials.

“There’s no perfect document in the world,” Barbu said. “Our own document is not perfect, but it will address our situation.”

Before lawmakers left for their constituency break, both chambers had begun considering the proposals. Boakai’s bills were referred to House committees, while more than 40 representatives participated in a two-day technical deliberation in Buchanan in June. The Senate Judiciary Committee separately began consultations aimed at harmonizing the competing proposals. Neither chamber passed legislation before the break.

Lawmakers said they needed time to consult constituents. But a soon-to-be-released FrontPage Africa/New Narratives survey found just 4 percent of 1150 respondents in 11 counties said they were aware that their lawmakers had held any consultations with citizens on the proposed court.

The delays have fueled frustration. At Saturday’s gathering, Barbu urged supporters to begin a sit-in at the Capitol Building.

“We beg you. Make it your duty to join us at the Capitol Building,” he said. “When they come, let them see us. When they going, let them see us.”

Victims and advocates are also pressing for reparations and assistance. Gongloe called for a National War Victims Relief Fund, proposing that Liberians at home contribute LD$100 annually and working Liberians abroad contribute US$1, with the government matching the total fivefold. He said the money could support medical care and microloans.

“Taking care of victims of the war is a different agenda,” Gongloe said.

In response, Barbu made a dramatic gesture, giving Gongloe the first LD$100 towards the fund. Patmillia Doe Paivey, a commissioner of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, quickly took the note and promised a proposal for the fund would be announced in days.

The Liberia Massacre Survivors Association separately called for US$250,000 in annual government funding, beginning in fiscal year 2026/2027, to document survivor testimony and massacre sites, support memorialization and transitional justice education, and provide livelihood assistance.

“To support LIMASA [Liberia Massacre Survivors Association] is to invest in Liberia’s peace and dignity,” the group’s statement said.

The event also honored several people, including advocates and journalists, for their service to humanity and their advocacy and reporting highlighting the plight of victims and survivors of Liberia’s civil wars.  

Bowoulu Taylor Kelley, vice president of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia, who delivered the keynote address, said justice must be accompanied by practical support for survivors.

“Hope is a widow hearing, at last, that her loss is seen. Hope is a nation saying to its wounded citizens: ‘you are not forgotten, you are not alone, and what happened to you matters,’” Kelley said.

She called for accessible health care, trauma-informed counseling, livelihood and education opportunities, support for widows, orphans, people living with war-related disabilities and elderly survivors, memorials, preservation of testimony and reparations.

“Restoring hope requires practical commitments,” Kelley said.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

Summary:

• The family of Ophelia Melway, a trafficking victim whose death helped expose Liberia’s largest human trafficking case, wants the investigation into her death fast-tracked.

• Prosecutors are investigating whether her death warrants homicide charges.

• Melway’s family, survivors and anti-trafficking advocates are demanding a swift and transparent investigation.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

It was Liberia’s biggest human trafficking trial to date. At the end of 22 days of hearings in June and July, a jury took just 23 minutes to decide eleven defendants were guilty of a range of crimes against 57 victims who were trafficked, starved, forced to work and deceived into handing over more than US$100,000 in total in the belief they would travel to jobs in Canada.

Eleven traffickers are now serving sentences as long as 50 years and have been ordered to pay US$131,500 in restitution and fines. (15 defendants have yet to face trial because they have not been apprehended.)

But victims say there is one major crime for which no one has faced justice: the death of Ophelia Melway, one of the victims, who fell seriously ill and was finally released by the traffickers only to die soon after.

Melway’s family has been joined by survivors of the trafficking ring who say determining whether anyone bears criminal responsibility for Melway’s death is essential to delivering full justice.

“I just want transparency,” said Melway’s younger brother, who FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is identifying only as M. to protect him from retaliation.

Anti-trafficking advocates have also called on the government to act.

“With that kind of gravity where somebody died, I don’t think the case can die, because if it dies, it puts the government in a very bad situation because that means they are compromising justice,” said Adolphus Satiah, head of the anti-human trafficking secretariat at the Ministry of Labor during the Weah administration. “When somebody dies, it’s not an easy case for anybody to play with, not even the government people.”

Melway’s death did not appear on the charge sheet against the 12 original defendants in the case drawn up by Enoch Dunbar, the head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit at the Liberia National Police, in October 2025.

That charge sheet – which had substantially downgraded most of the charges and dropped them against three of the defendants – was revised in April by Sumo C. Kutu Akoi, the senior human trafficking prosecutor. This came after FrontPage Africa/New Narratives revealed allegations by numerous victims that Bestman Juah, now head of public defenders, had offered a bribe on behalf of the traffickers to a prosecutor to downgrade the charges.

Victims allege Dunbar accepted a bribe to downgrade the charges. The case drew international attention and became a national test of Liberia’s willingness to prosecute organized trafficking networks. Previously the state had secured just six human trafficking convictions since 2020 and was on the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons watchlist, risking aid cuts. When the charges were reinstated and the case went to trial there was still no charge related to Melway’s death even though numerous victims had detailed it in their statements to police.

At the start of the trial, Akoi told FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that the prosecution had opened an investigation into Melway’s death. He has not responded to questions about the investigation since.

Two family members of Melway—her younger brother and nephew who were also recruited from Nimba by the trafficking ring – said Melway was healthy when she was recruited in early 2025.

“She was not sick. She was well moving,” said M. speaking in Liberian English. “She was hustling on own her. She had her home.”

The jury found the traffickers forced victims to make repeated recruitment calls to family and friends lying that they were in Canada. M. said traffickers forced Melway to recruit him, and he in turn was pressured to recruit their younger sister. Melway resisted. Victims who failed to recruit new members were routinely punished. M. said food was withheld from his sister because she would not recruit more people.

“When I get there, she was not eating,” said M. “From morning all the way up to the evening, you will not eat because they will still press her to call somebody.”

Melway’s deteriorating condition and death came up repeatedly during the trial, with nearly every victim mentioning it in their testimony. But still it was not proposed as a charge. Akoi did not answer questions as to why.

Another survivor, L., testified that Melway became progressively weaker, and traffickers ignored repeated warnings that Melway’s condition was worsening.

“She was sitting down the whole day, tired,” said L. “In the night when the people finished packing their chairs, we used to [sit] on the cool ground. She used to tell them she not well, but they never believe her.”

L. said that as Melway’s appearance changed dramatically, she was subjected to the same punishments as the other victims, including being forced to hold rocks in her outstretched hands, do squats until she collapsed and drink dirty water. 

Although he did not testify during the trial, Melway’s nephew, identified as A., said in an interview that he watched helplessly as traffickers tried to force his aunt to continue recruiting others despite her deteriorating condition.

“I was feeling discouraged because seeing your family member in that kind of condition, I felt bad,” A. said. After learning of her death, he said he begged to leave.

“The people said, ‘No way. When they put me out, I was going to expose their secret.’”

Another relative of Melway, who testified during the trial and whom FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is identifying only as J., said Daniel Davis, one of the convicted traffickers, told victims he had given Melway US$20 to travel home to Nimba County for treatment. J. said Davis’ girlfriend, Shelly Suah, another convicted trafficker, later told them, “Oh, Ophelia na make it.”

A male victim identified only as M. testified that “she was killed.” He said Melway became seriously ill before traffickers removed her from the compound for medical treatment.

Z. said Melway was sent to the family who later took her to Ganta United Methodist Hospital.

There doctors diagnosed her with dangerously high blood pressure M. said. After three days she died.

Her death, on top of the thousands the family gave to the traffickers, had dealt a devastating blow to the family. M. said Melway was the primary provider for the family, selling rice to support her parents and paying his school fees. Melway also left behind her partner, and their 17-year-old daughter.

“I was going to school. But since she passed away, I don’t have different sponsor,” said M. “That thing, it’s paining me. Because when I think about the things that we did to do together, when I am jammed, the things she was doing, the sad moment will come over me. I am feeling discouraged.”

When news of Melway’s death reached the compound, victims testified, it sparked desperation and fear. Victims believed she had been killed and feared that the traffickers planned to kill them one by one. The victims made loud banging and screaming noises and drew the attention of security guards at the neighboring home of Vice President Jeremiah Koung who freed them. From there the victims made their way to the Paynesville magistrates’ court where they reported the crimes.

Under Liberian law, the Ministry of Justice, which supervises the police, has the authority to initiate criminal investigations without the police. Police and prosecutors will determine whether the evidence supports charges of murder, negligent homicide or manslaughter.  

Experts said the Melway case was another test of the government’s willingness to hold traffickers to account. Liberia has remained on the U.S. State Department’s trafficking watch list for two consecutive years and risks cuts to aid if it remains there again on this year’s report which is due to be released any day.

Zokerseh B. Saye, executive director of the Liberia Anti-Trafficking Scam and Victim Support Initiative, which helps expose human trafficking and scam operations and reports perpetrators to the government, said investigators should build on the evidence already presented during the trial.

“It’s clear and it’s because of the act that caused that woman to die,” he said. “We want the government to be fast with the result that the people can see the impact of human trafficking.”

 This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

Summary:

• Liberia marks 23 years of peace with a week of remembrance and reflection, as survivors say justice, reconciliation and support for victims remain pressing concerns.

• Victims and advocates call for prosecutions, reparations and the preservation of massacre sites to honor the dead and educate younger generations.

• Pressure grows on lawmakers to approve legislation establishing a war and economic crimes court, more than two decades after the fighting ended.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

SOUL CLINIC, Montserrado County — Twenty-three years after Liberia’s warring factions signed an agreement ending more than a decade of civil wars, survivors and peace advocates gathered at the site of a wartime massacre to celebrate the country’s sustained peace — and warn that reconciliation remains incomplete without justice.

The Soul Clinic gathering, organized by partners including Kvinna till Kvinna, the Women’s NGOs Secretariat of Liberia, the Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court and the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, one of the country’s largest victims’ and survivors’ groups, was part of more than a week of events reflecting on Liberia’s 23 years of peace.

“But let us be honest. Reconciliation in Liberia is unfinished,” said Sheikh S. Kamara, executive director of Liberia’s Peacebuilding Office, who served keynote speaker at the Soul Clinic event. “Some TRC [Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission] recommendations remain unimplemented. Some communities still do not feel heard.”

Twenty-three years after the fighting ended, Liberia has maintained its peace, but much of its postwar reckoning remains incomplete. No one has been prosecuted in Liberia for wartime atrocities, although 16 trials and investigations have taken place in Europe and the United States. Victims are still waiting for reparations, and many massacre sites remain unmarked. Advocates say accountability, remembrance and teaching younger generations about the cost of the wars are essential to sustaining Liberia’s peace.

Similar commemorative events by the same partners were held elsewhere, including at Maher in Bomi County, where government forces were accused of massacring civilians suspected of supporting rebelss from the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, during the second civil war in 2002. Liberia’s truth commission said hundreds were killed, while Amnesty International separately documented 175 alleged deaths. Services were also held at a mosque and a church in Monrovia, along with a dialogue as part of the broader commemorative activities.

Together, the events honored those killed in the wars while reflecting on how far Liberia has come — and how much remains to be done in the country’s pursuit of justice and reconciliation.

At Soul Clinic, that history was beneath the participants’ feet.

The grounds of Soul Clinic Baptist Church were once part of a rubber plantation, according to residents and church officials. They said human remains, including skulls, were uncovered when the ground was dug during construction of the church.

The area became infamously known during the wars as “God Bless You Gate,” residents said, because people who managed to pass through without being harmed or killed were considered blessed.

The Liberia Massacre Survivors Association says more than 130 people were killed there and counts the location among 90 massacre sites it has documented across Liberia.

In its  final report in 2009, Liberia’s truth commission also identified the gate as one of the places where people were killed.

For Peterson Sonyah, executive director of the massacre survivors association, preserving such sites honors the dead and teaches younger Liberians, many of whom did not experience the wars, about the country’s past.

Sonyah recently visited genocide memorial sites in Rwanda on a study trip sponsored by Liberia’s Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court.

“We need to memorialize the dead,” Sonyah said. “If you go to Rwanda, people don’t use places like this anymore. It remains a memorial site that people go there and see what happened.”
He argued that preserved massacre sites could also attract visitors, generating income that could help support victims and survivors.
“The peace we have today, let us put justice behind it,” he said.
Kamara made a similar connection between remembrance and reconciliation.
“Memory without reconciliation becomes bitterness,” Kamara said. “Reconciliation without memory becomes denial. We need both.”
Exactly 23 years earlier, Liberia’s government and its two main rebel movements — Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, or MODEL — signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Accra, Ghana, ending the country’s second civil war. The agreement came seven days after then President Charles Taylor was forced into exile in Nigeria under mounting military and international pressure. His vice president, Moses Blah, succeeded him and was leading the Liberian government when it signed the peace agreement with the two rebel groups.
Women, particularly those from the Women in Peacebuilding Network, played a pivotal role in pushing the warring factions toward that agreement, organizing none violent demonstrations demanding an end to the fighting and pressuring negotiators in Ghana to reach a settlement.
Some of those women were back at Tuesday’s event — this time asking political leaders to complete another part of Liberia’s postwar process.

Ma Korpo Dennis, president of the Network, appealed directly to lawmakers to act on legislation establishing a war and economic crimes court.

“We begging the lawmakers, time wait for no man,” Dennis said in Liberian English. “Your join us so the Legislature will sign this paper [bill] where the President sent to them.”

She linked that appeal to the sacrifices women made to help end the wars.

“We tire with the suffering and we want our children them to get bright future,” she said. “Da why we sacrifice ourself.”

In May, President Joseph Boakai renewed efforts to establish a war and economic crimes court, directing the government’s court office to work with the Legislature to secure passage of legislation within 90 days. The office submitted bills for that court and a separate National Anti-Corruption Court. The deadline has passed, with both measures still before lawmakers.

The Legislature, which has constitutional authority to establish courts, is considering six proposals, including bills from the Liberian National Bar Association and a civil society coalition led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights; separate proposals from Senate President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and Senator Joseph Jallah; and two bills from the government’s court office.

Jallah Barbu, executive director of the Office, said constitutional concerns should inform lawmakers’ scrutiny of the bills, not become a reason for further delay.

“The people of Liberia deserve a law that is constitutionally sound, internationally compliant, institutionally workable and capable of delivering credible justice,” he said. At one point, he turned to Representative Michael Thomas, the only lawmaker attending the gathering, and urged him to rally his colleagues behind the legislation.

Thomas said he supported establishing the court.

“Justice for the victims,” Thomas said. “This blood is crying day in, day out.”

“Justice for those who lost their lives, who were not part of the conflict,” he continued. “Justice for our mothers who were in the war looking for food. Justice for our fathers.”

Thomas did not grant an interview after the event to say whether he had consulted his constituents about the proposed court. Some lawmakers have cited the need for constituent consultations as they consider the legislation.

The role of younger Liberians was another focus. A generation has grown up with little or no memory of the wars. Kamara said it was important “that we will teach the next generation what war cost us” and called for peace education in schools.

Esther S. Davis Yango, executive director of the Women’s NGOs Secretariat of Liberia, said the gathering sought to connect those who experienced the wars with younger Liberians who have known mainly peace.

“As we commemorate this important day, we must remember that peace is more than the absence of war,” Yango said. “Sustainable peace requires truth, justice, accountability, healing, reconciliation and the meaningful participation of citizens.”

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

• Survivors of the 1990 massacre by Armed Forces of Liberia soldiers at Monrovia’s St. Peter’s Lutheran Church used the 36th anniversary commemoration to demand the government speed up promised reparations and war crimes court.
• Liberia’s military leaders used the event to formally express regret for the first time for the military’s role in the massacre that killed 600 men, women and children in just 24 hours.
• Survivors unveiled a new memorial honoring those killed in the massacre.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

SINKOR, Monrovia -Victims and survivors of the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church massacre, one of the bloodiest atrocities of Liberia’s 14-year civil conflict, had expected that by the time of their 36th commemoration, the court to try those accused of war crimes would be preparing to get underway.

Instead they have found themselves once again begging the country’s leaders to deliver them the justice President Joseph Boakai promised when he stepped into office in January 2024.

Their appeal came during last week’s memorial service marking the massacre’s 36th anniversary, where families and survivors unveiled a new memorial honoring the 600 men, women, children and babies killed while sheltering inside the church, then a designated Red Cross refuge.

“How long will we continue to stand before the audience to explain our stories in pain?” asked survivor Eletha Mamie Sanga Toe, who said she lost 15 members of her family, including brothers and cousins, in the massacre.

The 36th anniversary came as Liberia’s Legislature stalls on the long-delayed effort to establish a War and Economic Crimes Court. The Boakai administration’s promises of reparations have also remained largely unfulfilled. More than three decades after the massacre, no one has been criminally prosecuted in Liberia for the killings.

Two accused perpetrators have faced accountability. In 2022, the U.S. federal civil court in Pennsylvania found Moses Thomas, a former commander of the Armed Forces of Liberia’s Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, civilly liable for the massacre and ordered him to pay US$84 million in damages to four survivors. He fled to Liberia to avoid a criminal charge and having to pay victims. Thomas has dismissed the judgment as “nonsense.”

Moses Wright, a former brigadier general in the Liberian army who allegedly oversaw the killings, faces trial in the same federal court in Pennsylvania in October on charges of criminal immigration fraud. American prosecutors allege that Wright lied in immigration proceedings to conceal his role in the war. Wright has denied the charges.

This year’s commemoration also brought one significant development for victims: for the first time, a representative of Liberia’s defense leadership publicly expressed regret for the military’s wartime past.

“As one of the officials of the Ministry of National Defense, allow me to say, on behalf of my boss, that we regret our dark past,” said Oscar Mulbah, assistant defense minister for public affairs. “We can only wish that the dark past did not happen. This is a time to show that we’ve been able to choose hope over despair. The Minister of National Defense wants me to inform you that this new Armed Forces of Liberia is an institution, or force, that has its loyalty to the sovereignty of the state, is a people’s centered military, a respecter of the rule of law and of human dignity. We want to reinforce our commitment of the Armed Forces of Liberia and the Ministry of National Defense to ensuring that the AFL, the Armed Forces of Liberia, serves with professionalism, integrity, accountability, and respect for human dignity and the dignity of every citizen.”

Asked in a follow-up WhatsApp message about the timing of the apology, Mulbah replied: “There is time for everything.”

The Lutheran Church Massacre Survivors Association, which organized the commemoration, welcomed the apology but cautioned that “we have some concerns about its timing.”

Still, in a WhatsApp message, Marcus P. Quoigoah, the association’s executive director, in a WhatsApp message called it “an encouraging sign” that survivors’ long-standing call for recognition was “gradually being acknowledged” and “a positive step toward reconciliation and healing.”

Following the memorial ceremony, survivors and families unveiled a new memorial honoring those killed. Wreaths were laid by Tiawan Saye Gongloe, veteran Liberian human rights lawyer whose brother was killed in the massacre, Lawrence Yealue, chairman of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, and Peterson Sonyah, who lost seven members of his family in the massacre, including his father. Sonyah now serves as executive director of the Liberia Massacre Survivors Association, one of the country’s largest organizations representing victims and survivors of the civil wars.

The massacre marked one of the most shameful acts in the military’s history. Forces loyal to President Doe claimed the civilians sheltering in the church, predominantly members of the Mano and Gio ethnic groups, supported the advancing rebel faction led by Charles Taylor who had invaded the country six months earlier aiming to topple Doe. (Taylor later became Liberia’s president and was eventually convicted by an international tribunal and sentenced to 50 years in prison for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in neighboring Sierra Leone. Doe was killed by Taylor’s former ally Prince Johnson.)

In shocking acts that brought the world’s attention to the conflict men, women and children were hacked to death with machetes over a 24-hour period.

At the memorial service, survivor after survivor said they no longer wanted merely to relive their suffering at annual ceremonies. They wanted justice, medical care, psychological support and assistance rebuilding lives shattered by the war.

“We often hear that Liberia is healing and moving forward. But can a nation truly move forward while those carrying its deepest wounds are left behind?” asked Quoigoah, in a speech at the church. “Can reconciliation be genuine if victims continue to suffer in silence? We do not gather because we enjoy remembering pain. We gather because forgetting injustice gives it permission to happen again. We remember so Liberia may heal, so humanity may learn, and because those who were murdered can no longer speak for themselves. As survivors, we have a sacred responsibility to speak for them.”

War Crimes Court Stuck in Legislature

Liberia’s war crimes court remains a work in progress. In May, Boakai renewed the mandate of the Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court, which is overseeing efforts to establish both a War and Economic Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court, directing the Office to work with the Legislature to approve a bill to establish the court (as required by law) within 90 days. That deadline has long-since passed.

In June, the Office and its partners held a consultation with more than 40 members of the House of Representatives. In early July, Jallah Barbu, the Office’s executive director, appeared at a closed-door Senate hearing to defend draft two bills prepared by his office. Journalists were prohibited from covering the hearing.

Christopher Selle, a spokesman for the Office, said it had completed its responsibilities within the 90-day period. “Yes. The Legislature is the hold-out,” said Selle said in a phone interview. “They’ve got their timeline. The timeline was not fitting within our timeline. Unfortunately, this office cannot pass these bills, but the Legislature.”

Advocates have repeatedly warned that lawmakers in the Legislature, which includes multiple people who may face trial, would try to stop passage of a bill. Augustine Chea, chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Claims and Petitions did not respond to a request for comment on the matter. The Committee has been holding hearings with stakeholders and groups advocating for six competing proposals for the courts.

In addition to the bills prepared by the Office, they include a War and Economic Crimes Court bill submitted by the Liberian National Bar Association in 2021; another drafted by a civil society coalition led by the Independent National Commission on Human Rights. Separate proposals were introduced by Senate President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and Lofa County Senator Joseph Jallah.

The competing proposals contain differences that some lawmakers say could be unconstitutional and must be reconciled before legislation can be passed. But civil society leaders have accused the Legislature of delay tactics.

“When other bill them come, you can be fast in passing it,” said Lawrence Yealue, chairman of the National Civil Society Council, in Liberian English. “So, when pain happening to us now, whatten you not passing that bill for?”

Government Remains Silent on Reparations Program Promised at the UN in 2024

In its final report in 2009,  Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission proposed a wide-ranging reparations program funded over 30 years at the cost of US$500 million ($780 million in 2026 dollars). It said the program should cover “memorials, victim support and the process of prosecution” as well as “psychosocial, physical, therapeutic, counseling, medical, mental health and other health related services for all physically challenged individuals who were incapacitated” during the civil wars.

Nearly two years ago, Justice Minister Oswald Tweh told a United Nations gathering in New York that the government was “committed to establishing a reparation trust fund to support conflict victims.” He said the fund would “help victims rebuild their lives and communities, ensuring that they are not forgotten as we move forward.”

That promise has yet to be fulfilled. Tweh has not responded to repeated requests for comment on the status of the proposed fund.

The Boakai administration has taken what advocates describe as important symbolic steps in the country’s broader reparations process. President Boakai has issued an official state apology to victims of the civil wars, pledged to build a national memorial for victims and regional peacekeepers, and presided over a special national prayer service honoring the dead and the living. But survivors said symbolic gestures must be matched by material support.

“As survivors, we are not asking for luxury,” Quoigoah said. “How much does it really cost to help suffering survivors survive? Is compassion truly that expensive? Will providing medical care, counseling, and basic support somehow weaken our nation—or is it simply too much to ask? History will one day demand an answer.”

Tiawan Gongloe said the government should take practical steps to support survivors while the proposed court is being established.

“I am suggesting that the Liberian government sets up a special tax to take care of victims of the wars,” Gongloe said. “Even if it’s 2 percent of salaries, let there be tax to show the government’s seriousness. So that the victims can get some money every month.”

He also urged Boakai to issue an executive order guaranteeing free treatment at government hospitals for verified victims of the wars.

“If we are serious, we must start giving relief to those who are still living now,” Gongloe said.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

Summary:          

• Victims and anti-trafficking advocates are urging Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. to rescind this month’s appointment of Bestman Juah  to a key government post after he was accused of paying bribes to protect traffickers found guilty this month in the country’s largest human trafficking case.
• Victims alleged Juah offered a US$7,000 bribe to a prosecutor to reduce and remove charges and was being paid $500 a week to protect traffickers; Juah denies wrongdoing. Prosecutors say the accusations are under investigation.
• Advocates warn the Chief Justice’s appointment of Juah could further undermine confidence in Liberia’s justice system.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

Victims of Liberia’s largest human trafficking case and anti-human trafficking advocates say they were “shocked and disappointed” by Supreme Court Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. appointment of a lawyer whom numerous victims have accused of “being on the payroll” to protect human traffickers in the country.

In a memorandum issued on July 1, Chief Justice Gbeisay Sr. appointed Bestman Juah, to head the Public Defenders Association of Liberia, a government-backed program that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford to pay. In his new role, Juah will oversee the program assigning public defenders to represent indigent clients in civil and criminal cases.

“The people that won the case they now elevate them?” asked P., one of the victims whose identity FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is withholding because of fears of retaliation, speaking in Liberian English. “I am very, very disappointed in him. I feeling bad.”

The case, with 57 victims, ended this month with the conviction of all 11 defendants. The jury took just 23 minutes to reach the verdict. Eight received 50-year prison sentences—the longest ever imposed in a Liberian human trafficking case—while the remaining three were sentenced to 20 years, with half of each sentence suspended. The traffickers were ordered to pay a combined total of US$131,500—US$120,000 in restitution to the victims and US$11,500 in fines.

The case only made it to trial after FrontPage Africa/New Narratives exposed the victims’ allegations and the fact that the charges had been reduced or dropped all together in some cases. A delay in prosecuting the case had meant the accused traffickers had become eligible for bail.

Numerous victims in the case alleged in police statements and in interviews with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that Juah had offered a US$7000 bribe to a prosecutor while the case was before the Paynesville Magisterial Court in September 2025, to reduce or drop the charges. Though the prosecutor is alleged to have refused the bribe, the charges were reduced and removed when the charge sheet was released. This caused suspicion to then fall on Enoch Dunbar, the head of the anti-trafficking unit at the Liberian National Police, who was in charge of writing up the charges.

Victims said the traffickers repeatedly claimed they enjoyed protection from influential officials. According to nine victims, their captors boasted that police were “in the business,” that government officials were “in their pocket,” and that the case would never make it to trial because they paid Juah US$500 a week to protect them.

The bribery claims were not litigated during the trial, but in an interview with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives at the start of the trial in June, Sumo C. Kutu Akoi, one of the

 government’s lead prosecutors, said the state had opened an investigation.

Juah and Dunbah denied any wrongdoing when New Narratives approached them after the initial investigation. Juah did not respond to a subsequent request for comment on the investigation or on calls for his appointment to be rescinded.

The Supreme Court is not the only body to have ignored the accusations against Juah. In May, two months after the allegations were published in March, Juah was tasked with training county lawyers and court officials on how to run sexual and gender-based violence cases by the UNDP, UN Women and UNFPA, under the EU-funded spotlight initiative. Chief Justice Gbeisay was also in attendance at the event held in Ganta, Nimba County. Juah has also continued in his role as president of the Public Defenders Association.

Victims and anti-trafficking advocates argued that promoting Juah risks further eroding public confidence in Liberia’s dysfunctional justice system and sends a troubling message to survivors seeking justice.

In response to questions sent by WhatsApp Ceasar Slapeh, director of communications for the judiciary said the justice Gbeisay was unaware of the probe, saying if it was being conducted by the prosecutor’s office, under the direction of the justice ministry, the courts or the judiciary                                                                       would not normally be informed of that investigation.

“The Ministry of Justice is under the executive branch,” said Slapeh in a WhatsApp message. “Whatever investigation that is ongoing or done, as long as the matter is not before any of our courts, we absolutely have no interference or don’t even need to be aware. So, Cllr. Juah’s allegation above could also serve same.”

Even though Akoi had acknowledged that it was the government’s role to investigate allegations of state bribery that had potentially perverted a major criminal case, Slapeh encouraged those making allegations against Juah now to undertake private legal action themselves in order to pursue justice. 

“Under this Chief Justice, I can assure you that, the judiciary is becoming more trustworthy and as long as the matter is before our courts, justice will be served,” he said. “They all just need to be patient to have their case on the docket.”

The allegations have angered survivors, who said they nearly prevented one of Liberia’s most significant trafficking prosecutions from ever reaching court.

“Da something to make me happy?” asked P.T. “Not good news there for me. The man was taking pay. That our money they was using to pay the man. It’s no lie.”

M., another survivor, also called on the Chief Justice to reconsider the appointment.

“The elevation of Bestman [Juah] is something that comes as a disappointment to me,” he said. “Juah is one of the persons the people involved in this dubious act always boasted with his name. They always said they were paying him to defend them.”

When he took office as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court nearly a year ago, Gbeisay pledged zero tolerance for corruption within the judiciary. He followed that pledge with a series of reforms, including installing CCTV cameras at all major court facilities, creating hotlines for the public to report corruption and erecting anti-corruption signs in judicial buildings.

Slapeh said the installation of CCTV cameras in courts and the creation of a nationwide monitoring and evaluation team showed that Gbeisay “will not bend on corrupt practices” and were part of “an action plan to demonstrate transparency in the judiciary.”

M. urged Gbeisay to live up to that pledge by suspending Juah’s appointment pending the outcome of the prosecutor’s investigation which M. said would find Juah guilty. “He shouldn’t give him the job.”

Anti-human trafficking advocates have taken up the victims’ demands for accountability saying the appointment sends the wrong signal at a time when Liberia is seeking to strengthen its fight to protect Liberia’s poorest from the growing scammer industry.

“We have to look at the concern of the citizens because the Chief Justice is working in the interest of the citizens,” said Zokerseh B. Saye, executive director of the Liberia Anti-Trafficking Scam and Victim Support Initiative, a press conference held at their Sinkor office recently. “We are talking about an individual who has always been in the habit of preventing justice for vulnerable people.”

“Given the critical role of the Public Defense Program in representing vulnerable Liberians, these concerns deserve an independent and transparent review to protect the integrity of our justice system.”

Saye said his organization had formally written Chief Justice Gbeisay asking him to reconsider the appointment. In a separate interview, Saye said his organization had documented complaints from human trafficking survivors stranded in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and other countries who had accused Juah of working with the traffickers.”They are willing to come to testify against him,” Saye said. “There are a lot of victims that we have access to that this guy caused not to get justice. It will serve as a serious threat to our operations and the fight against trafficking in the country.”

The controversy comes as public confidence in Liberia’s judiciary remains fragile. The Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia, the Liberian chapter of the global transparency organization Transparency International, said in its 2025 State of Corruption report that confidence in the Judiciary had fallen sharply from 33 percent in 2024 to 16 percent in 2025. It described “a confidence gap concentrated specifically in the Judiciary,” one of the institutions responsible for investigating, trying and punishing corruption. It also found that court services remain among the public services most widely perceived to be affected by corruption, reflecting what it called “an enduring public perception that corruption cuts across the most essential areas of daily civic life.”

It also comes as the country awaits the latest Trafficking in Persons report from the US State Department. Liberia has spent two years on the “tier 2 watchlist” meaning it could face a cut in US aid if it does not improve this year.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

Summary:          

• Victims and anti-trafficking advocates are urging Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. to rescind this month’s appointment of Bestman Juah  to a key government post after he was accused of paying bribes to protect traffickers found guilty this month in the country’s largest human trafficking case.
• Victims alleged Juah offered a US$7,000 bribe to a prosecutor to reduce and remove charges and was being paid $500 a week to protect traffickers; Juah denies wrongdoing. Prosecutors say the accusations are under investigation.
• Advocates warn the Chief Justice’s appointment of Juah could further undermine confidence in Liberia’s justice system.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives 

Victims of Liberia’s largest human trafficking case and anti-human trafficking advocates say they were “shocked and disappointed” by Supreme Court Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. appointment of a lawyer whom numerous victims have accused of “being on the payroll” to protect human traffickers in the country.

In a memorandum issued on July 1, Chief Justice Gbeisay Sr. appointed Bestman Juah, to head the Public Defenders Association of Liberia, a government-backed program that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford to pay. In his new role, Juah will oversee the program assigning public defenders to represent indigent clients in civil and criminal cases.

“The people that won the case they now elevate them?” asked P., one of the victims whose identity FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is withholding because of fears of retaliation, speaking in Liberian English. “I am very, very disappointed in him. I feeling bad.”

The case, with 57 victims, ended this month with the conviction of all 11 defendants. The jury took just 23 minutes to reach the verdict. Eight received 50-year prison sentences—the longest ever imposed in a Liberian human trafficking case—while the remaining three were sentenced to 20 years, with half of each sentence suspended. The traffickers were ordered to pay a combined total of US$131,500—US$120,000 in restitution to the victims and US$11,500 in fines.

The case only made it to trial after FrontPage Africa/New Narratives exposed the victims’ allegations and the fact that the charges had been reduced or dropped all together in some cases. A delay in prosecuting the case had meant the accused traffickers had become eligible for bail.

Numerous victims in the case alleged in police statements and in interviews with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that Juah had offered a US$7000 bribe to a prosecutor while the case was before the Paynesville Magisterial Court in September 2025, to reduce or drop the charges. Though the prosecutor is alleged to have refused the bribe, the charges were reduced and removed when the charge sheet was released. This caused suspicion to then fall on Enoch Dunbar, the head of the anti-trafficking unit at the Liberian National Police, who was in charge of writing up the charges.

Victims said the traffickers repeatedly claimed they enjoyed protection from influential officials. According to nine victims, their captors boasted that police were “in the business,” that government officials were “in their pocket,” and that the case would never make it to trial because they paid Juah US$500 a week to protect them.

The bribery claims were not litigated during the trial, but in an interview with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives at the start of the trial in June, Sumo C. Kutu Akoi, one of the

 government’s lead prosecutors, said the state had opened an investigation.

Juah and Dunbah denied any wrongdoing when New Narratives approached them after the initial investigation. Juah did not respond to a subsequent request for comment on the investigation or on calls for his appointment to be rescinded.

The Supreme Court is not the only body to have ignored the accusations against Juah. In May, two months after the allegations were published in March, Juah was tasked with training county lawyers and court officials on how to run sexual and gender-based violence cases by the UNDP, UN Women and UNFPA, under the EU-funded spotlight initiative. Chief Justice Gbeisay was also in attendance at the event held in Ganta, Nimba County. Juah has also continued in his role as president of the Public Defenders Association.

Victims and anti-trafficking advocates argued that promoting Juah risks further eroding public confidence in Liberia’s dysfunctional justice system and sends a troubling message to survivors seeking justice.

In response to questions sent by WhatsApp Ceasar Slapeh, director of communications for the judiciary said the justice Gbeisay was unaware of the probe, saying if it was being conducted by the prosecutor’s office, under the direction of the justice ministry, the courts or the judiciary                                                                       would not normally be informed of that investigation.

“The Ministry of Justice is under the executive branch,” said Slapeh in a WhatsApp message. “Whatever investigation that is ongoing or done, as long as the matter is not before any of our courts, we absolutely have no interference or don’t even need to be aware. So, Cllr. Juah’s allegation above could also serve same.”

Even though Akoi had acknowledged that it was the government’s role to investigate allegations of state bribery that had potentially perverted a major criminal case, Slapeh encouraged those making allegations against Juah now to undertake private legal action themselves in order to pursue justice. 

“Under this Chief Justice, I can assure you that, the judiciary is becoming more trustworthy and as long as the matter is before our courts, justice will be served,” he said. “They all just need to be patient to have their case on the docket.”

The allegations have angered survivors, who said they nearly prevented one of Liberia’s most significant trafficking prosecutions from ever reaching court.

“Da something to make me happy?” asked P.T. “Not good news there for me. The man was taking pay. That our money they was using to pay the man. It’s no lie.”

M., another survivor, also called on the Chief Justice to reconsider the appointment.

“The elevation of Bestman [Juah] is something that comes as a disappointment to me,” he said. “Juah is one of the persons the people involved in this dubious act always boasted with his name. They always said they were paying him to defend them.”

When he took office as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court nearly a year ago, Gbeisay pledged zero tolerance for corruption within the judiciary. He followed that pledge with a series of reforms, including installing CCTV cameras at all major court facilities, creating hotlines for the public to report corruption and erecting anti-corruption signs in judicial buildings.

Slapeh said the installation of CCTV cameras in courts and the creation of a nationwide monitoring and evaluation team showed that Gbeisay “will not bend on corrupt practices” and were part of “an action plan to demonstrate transparency in the judiciary.”

M. urged Gbeisay to live up to that pledge by suspending Juah’s appointment pending the outcome of the prosecutor’s investigation which M. said would find Juah guilty. “He shouldn’t give him the job.”

Anti-human trafficking advocates have taken up the victims’ demands for accountability saying the appointment sends the wrong signal at a time when Liberia is seeking to strengthen its fight to protect Liberia’s poorest from the growing scammer industry.

“We have to look at the concern of the citizens because the Chief Justice is working in the interest of the citizens,” said Zokerseh B. Saye, executive director of the Liberia Anti-Trafficking Scam and Victim Support Initiative, a press conference held at their Sinkor office recently. “We are talking about an individual who has always been in the habit of preventing justice for vulnerable people.”

“Given the critical role of the Public Defense Program in representing vulnerable Liberians, these concerns deserve an independent and transparent review to protect the integrity of our justice system.”

Saye said his organization had formally written Chief Justice Gbeisay asking him to reconsider the appointment. In a separate interview, Saye said his organization had documented complaints from human trafficking survivors stranded in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and other countries who had accused Juah of working with the traffickers.”They are willing to come to testify against him,” Saye said. “There are a lot of victims that we have access to that this guy caused not to get justice. It will serve as a serious threat to our operations and the fight against trafficking in the country.”

The controversy comes as public confidence in Liberia’s judiciary remains fragile. The Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia, the Liberian chapter of the global transparency organization Transparency International, said in its 2025 State of Corruption report that confidence in the Judiciary had fallen sharply from 33 percent in 2024 to 16 percent in 2025. It described “a confidence gap concentrated specifically in the Judiciary,” one of the institutions responsible for investigating, trying and punishing corruption. It also found that court services remain among the public services most widely perceived to be affected by corruption, reflecting what it called “an enduring public perception that corruption cuts across the most essential areas of daily civic life.”

It also comes as the country awaits the latest Trafficking in Persons report from the US State Department. Liberia has spent two years on the “tier 2 watchlist” meaning it could face a cut in US aid if it does not improve this year.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.