Author: Eric Opa Duoe

GARPUE TOWN, River Cess — A major national FrontPageAfrica/New Narratives survey has found nine in every ten Liberian subsistence farmers want to migrate because climate change is making farming unviable. With as many as 80 percent of Liberians making their living from farming, experts say the findings have major implications for Liberia’s food security and exposes vulnerable Liberians to extreme dangers from those seeking to exploit them.

YARPAH TOWN, River Cess–Betty Miller is a single mother of six children aged six to 13. She is also a farmer, one of many here have struggled to feed and educate their children in the past four years because of poor harvests.

CHIO TOWN, River Cess—Aaron Harris, an injured person from the Chio Town mudslide who was being treated at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, was confirmed dead on Sunday morning by authorities. This brings the number of casualties to 11. Apart from the initial ten individuals who were discovered and confirmed dead by authorities following Monday night’s mudslide at an abandoned mine in Chio Town, there were approximately seven critically wounded, including Harris, who were taken to different hospitals and herbalists.

CHIO TOWN, River Cess – As the search for victims in the Chio Town disaster continues, family of the victims have begun pointing fingers at officials of the Ministry of Mines and Energy in the county over the incident. Ten people are confirmed dead with more than 30 still missing and either trapped beneath the ground or dead.

CHIO TOWN, River Cess-Residents of Chio Town woke up early Tuesday morning to the news of a mudslide that occurred an artisanal mine on the outskirt of the town about 11pm Monday. Local Authorities in River Cess confirmed the death of at least ten persons so far, but family members are still in search of their missing relatives.

GEELARDRO, Sinoe County – Community members here in Tartweh and Drapoe chiefdoms are fuming over a range of what they claim are violations of Liberian laws by the country’s forest management body the Forestry Development Agency.

MONROVIA—Finnish prosecutors in the ongoing appeal hearings of Gibril Massaquoi, a former commander of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front have expressed confidence in witnesses testifying on their behalf, despite concerns about inconsistencies in the testimonies of the witnesses. The issue has dogged the trial, with the District Court in the city of Tampere focusing on that in its April 2022 ruling.

The Finnish Court of Appeal begins hearing witnesses at a hotel in Monrovia By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives MONROVIA- The first witness took the stand on Wednesday in the Liberia hearings of the appeal of former Revolutionary United Front commander Gibril Massaquoi’s 2022 acquittal on charges of war crimes. The woman, whose identity is being withheld for her security, told the three-judge panel of the appeal court which has relocated from Finland for the hearings, that her sister was killed on the order of Massaquoi under the bridge near Waterside market. The witness said she and her sister…

In part two of this two-part series with New Narratives Eric Opa Doue finds widespread opposition from teachers and civil society to government’s privatization of schools and a plea to government to abandon the scheme and let counties take charge. YARPAH TOWN, River Cess County – Emmanuel Yarbah squeezes onto a desk next to a classmate here in Togar Macintosh school. With a bare dirt floor and no ceiling, it is swelteringly hot. There are about 17 children in the classroom but only ten old desks. Not that it really matters. Even if it were a good setting for learning,…

In 2016 U.S.-based Bridge International Came To Save Liberia’s Schools. In the first of a two-part investigation with New Narratives Eric Opa Doue finds Bridge schools doing little better than state schools. YARPAH TOWN, River Cess County – Babygirl Smith helps her mother to sell snacks at the town market every Monday. The 17-year-old should be in grade 11 at the local school but she was stopped from attending in 2016 when Bridge International, the United States-based for-profit company, took over. Now school is out of the question. Babygirl has her own baby to look after.