Author: Eric Opa Duoe

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 had gone with other civilians to a biscuit store to buy food when…

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.

ZAMMIE TOWN, River Cess County – Water dictates the lives of people in this part of central River Cess. With just three hand pumps to supply a town of 7,000, women and children here wake as early as 3 am to fetch water from distant creeks. But the creek water carries dangers they say: contaminants from gold mining and logging upstream. The water has not been tested but people here say every rainy season brings outbreaks of diarrhea. In 2019 people in eight towns were stricken.

By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – Forty years ago Atlantic Street was one of this port city’s busiest streets, humming with stores and chop shops. Today it is almost deserted. The encroaching shoreline has swallowed up structures and is threatening to take out the street itself.