Author: Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh

MONROVIA — Gibril Massaquoi, the Sierra Leonean man, whose acquittal of war crimes and crimes against humanity charges by a Finnish District Court is being challenged, has been accused of ordering the rapping to death of two minors and a pregnant woman.

MONROVIA—At Thursday’s appeal hearings for Gibil Massaquoi, the commander Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front, RUF of standing trial for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Liberia’s first civil war, all three prosecution witnesses, who came from Lofa County, Liberia’s northwestern region provided harrowing testimonies, claiming he and his soldiers killed residents in a town called Kamatahum.

MONROVIA—Dressed in short black jean trousers and wearing a thick red sweater attached to a hat covering his head, “Y8” walked into the courtroom and sat to the left hand of the Liberian interpreter.

In part two of this two-part series with New Narratives, Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds Liberians are abandoning the Sande traditional society leading some leaders to resort to kidnapping and forced cutting. MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado – Deborah Parker was 15 when she was sent to a “Bush school” run by the Sande traditional society in her home village of Bahn, Nimba County. During the final initiation ceremony, in an act that she says was traumatic and painful, traditional leaders known as “Zoes” held her down and sliced off her external genitalia with a razor blade. Parker had no say. It was…

Liberia is one of just three West African nations where female genital cutting is legal. In this two-part series with New Narratives Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds strong resistance to the bill from traditional leaders and little political will to challenge them. At the same time Sande’s membership is plummeting. MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado – 18-year-old Dearest is one of five girls who made headlines last year when they were abducted and forcefully initiated into the Sande Society here. Nearly a year on she is still angry and traumatized.

Martu Yardolo had just turned 17 when she says she was given a drug hidden in a drink and gang raped by three men. It was the night of her birthday. Yardolo was looking forward to celebrating with her friends. Instead but it ended in violence that has destroyed her world.

SINYEA, Bong County – After two years of poor harvests the Sumo family was nervous this year. Rain had been unpredictable. The sun felt hotter. The soil on their five-hectare plot here was dry. They planted bitter ball, pumpkin, pepper, corn, okra and rice and followed the rules they had followed their whole lives as subsistence farmers.

Mount Barclay, LIBERIA – Going to the “Sande Bush” school was never a dream for Dearest, Tina or Precious. The three girls, all high school students, say they were abducted by traditional leaders in September and taken by force to the Sande without the consent of their parents. They spent six terrifying weeks at the Bush school before their desperate mothers finally discovered their location and rescued them.

MONROVIA – It’s being more than two weeks since Deborah Parker and Miatta King’s daughters along with three other girls were adopted and forcefully initiated into the Sande by traditionalists (Zoes), in Mount Barclay near the capital, Monrovia.

MONROVIA – Migrants from West Africa taking up the journey through the Sahara Desert set off convinced that it’s a smooth ride, once they make it Libya or Algeria. The notion is that when they pass through Morocco, they can easily sway their way into Europe, but many of them now regret those thoughts.