Author: Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh

MONROVIA – As Liberia commemorates 20 years since the end of the civil conflict that left devastated the country and left 250,000 people dead, a survey of first-time voters conducted in two of the country’s biggest counties found overwhelming support for a court. Nine out of 10 of the participants surveyed – all of whom had been born after the war ended in 2003 – said the establishment of a war and economic crimes court was “very important” to their future and the future of the nation.

Organized by Nicolais School of Business, Wagner College based in New York, Ibn Zohr University is hosting the fourth edition of the Current Business Issues in African Countries (CBIAC) this year. The start of Thursday’s conference brought together about 209 people from 10 countries, across Africa and the United States.

MONROVIA, Liberia—”X-9,” as the Finnish Appeals Court co-named him, sounded regretful, when he reflected on what he claimed was the ruining of his life by the Sierra Leonean man facing prosecution for mass murder, rape, torture, and other horrific crimes in Liberia during the country’s second civil war between 1997-2003.

MONROVIA – January’s news that authorities had seized a container of machine guns and other weapons at Monrovia’s port sent shock waves through the country. The first known illegal importation of guns since the end of the civil war in 2003 came as violent crime has ticked up, adding to a growing sense of insecurity for many Liberians as October’s presidential election approaches.

MONROVIA, Liberia—A witness, claiming to be a former Liberian army soldier, has accused the Sierra Leonean man facing charges for alleged gross human rights violations in Liberia of ordering massacre at Waterside in Monrovia.

MONROVIA, Liberia—As with the trial before a Finnish district court, acquittal hearings for Gibril Massaquoi, the Sierra Leonean accused of grave human rights violations in Liberia, bribery allegations begun to dog his acquittal hearings.

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…