Liberia: Top LURD Rebel Frontline Commander Arrested In London For War Crimes

Monrovia – Jankuba Fofana, a former fighter and a  frontline commander for the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy, has been arrested in London.

Authorities in London did not reveal the identity of suspect arrested by British police Thursday, but FrontPageAfrica has learned that the suspect has been indentified as Fofana, who was picked up on suspicion of war crimes relating to conflicts in Liberia between 1989 and 2003.

According to the British Police, detectives had detained the 45-year-old man in southeast London over alleged offences contrary to the International Criminal Court Act, and he was now in custody.

From 1989 to 2003, up to a quarter of a million people in Liberia were killed in a civil war, while thousands more were mutilated and raped.

The LURD) was a rebel group was active from 1999 until the resignation of Charles Taylor ended the second Liberian war in 2003. While the group formally dissolved after the war, the interpersonal linkages of the civil war era remain a key force in internal Liberian politics.

The group’s only stated political purpose during the civil war that followed its rebellion against President Charles Taylor was to force him out of office.

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is serving 50 years in a British prison after

being found guilty by an international tribunal of crimes against humanity.

His ex-wife Agnes Reeves Taylor was charged by British police with torture in 2017 but the case against her was dismissed two years later after a judge said there was a lack of evidence of governmental control at the time of the alleged crimes.

Fofana was a major player in the civil war and was at the center of ceasefire talks between Taylor’s forces and LURD at the height of the civil war.