Monrovia – Since the news of maltreatment and killing of Africans, especially blacks, including Liberians in Libya surfaced, there have been news of other Liberians, who are incarcerated in Sudan and now Algeria.
Report by Mae Azango [email protected]
“There are no human rights here in Algeria; we also have not had journalists to interview us.”
“We hear that whenever a journalist comes to do such, that person is killed; so we do not have anybody to report on what is affecting us in Algeria,” said a Liberian lady stranded in Algeria.
This lady is seen in a video, which is circulating on the Internet, was posted by Victor Jones of Royal Family Radio in the U.S.
Jones is the gentleman, who also brought the story of the Liberians, who are jailed in Sudan to the public.
In this other video on Algeria, Liberians are appealing to government to rescue them from captivity in that North African nation as is the same appeal from the Liberians in the Sudan prison.
The lady seen on the camera, as she speaks, she is interrupted by a male colleague, who said some Liberians have died in the desert.
“We are dying here, even 10 of our men, who went to look for food and water, were caught and sent into the desert.”
“They lost their lives because they never had water.”
In the video, people who are said to be Liberians are seen crammed up and lying on the floor of a building that they say they cannot get out of.”
“They can be seen wrapped in thick blankets, and beside them are small bottles of water and bread.
“We are short of food and water. Even people are dehydrated, because there are three persons to a small bottle of water.”
“We are suffering and we need the Liberian government’s help [directly or] come to our aid through IOM.”
“We are calling on President Weah to help save our lives, because we do not have an embassy here,” they said.
Another Liberian in Algeria, who is working as a contractor, but fear of calling his name, spoke with this newspaper via mobile.
Solomon (not his real name) disclosed that he knows of at least seven persons from Liberians, who are also in jail in that country.
He revealed that one of the seven men is the little brother of Lebanese businessman George Haddad of Bridge Way Corporation and Alliance Motors.
“The men are jailed for between 10 to 20 years.”
“These men are my friends. Some of them and I worked together. They were falsely accused,” he stated.
Solomon further narrated that some of men were accused of being spies for Israel.
“This is a Muslim Country; we Christians are not allowed to worship our God.”
“We hide in some basements to secretly worship God.”
“Normally, when we are faced with difficulties, we usually shout out ‘Let the God of Israel fight for me, as he did for the people of Israel.’”
According to him, it was on one of those moments that they were heard shouting and were picked up and accused of being spies for Israel.
We decided to hear from the Liberian government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Elias Shoniyin, told this newspaper that his office has heard about the Liberians stranded in Sudan and the recent news of Liberians stranded in Algeria.
As Liberia doesn’t have diplomatic relations or embassies in those nations, he disclosed that they are doing two diplomatic communications to friendly countries or through the International Organization on Migration (IOM) so that they can appeal on behalf of the Liberian government for the release of her citizens in both Sudan and Algeria.
“We do not have embassies in these countries so we work along with International Organization on Migration to get our citizens as we did in the case of Libya and brought back 19 Liberians home,” said Minister Shoniyin.
According to the Deputy Foreign Minister, not having embassies in most countries, including those nations that these Liberians are stranded in, was becoming worrisome. Mr. Shoniyin disclosed that Liberia once had 46 embassies in other countries but government had to reduce the number by nearly half.
“Now we only have 26 embassies in foreign countries, which are not enough. So how do we act swiftly to get our citizens back to Liberia, in situations like these without embassies?” he asked.
He further informed this newspaper that the Ministry’s budget has been sliced so much so that it cannot fully manage the home office and the foreign missions.
“The Ministry’s budget was US$17 million but was reduced to US$13 million.”
“Now we have been asked to further reduce that amount to US$10 million to run the home and the 26 embassies in foreign countries.”
“This is not enough but the government says it has no money,” Minister Shoniyin said.
Those Liberians are not as lucky as George Kollie, their fellow countryman, who had traveled by road from Liberia to Algeria to seek greener pasture.
Kollie, who is now a taxi driver in Monrovia, narrated that before he got to Algeria, he had to travel via Guinea and Mali onward to that country.
“I traveled by road from Liberia to Guinea, from there, I went to Mali. In Mali, the car will only carry you some of the way towards the Algerian border.
We walked through the bushes to escape the rebels, but they caught and detained us for days to collect ransom from our families.
The rebels demanded that we call our families back home, so that they could send money into the account of a man there who spoke French, English and Arabic in order to gain our freedom.
If you are not lucky for your people to send money, they will kill you,” Kollie, who was interviewed in his taxi during a ride from Monrovia to Redlight in Paynesville, narrated.
He revealed that Nigerians dominated the trip, followed by Ivoirians, Sierra Leoneans and Liberians.
“I narrowly escaped death. My captors demanded US$500 from my oldma. My Oldma had to find that money and send for my release.
Those who parents or relatives could not send money in time were killed or sold as slaves. My friend Samson, who took me on the trip, was killed in my presence. I cried and felt bad when this happened.
I had him in Mali when I was struggling there. Samson was the one who encouraged me to venture on the trip to Algeria for a better life.”
“I was convinced because he spoke French fluently.
I felt confident traveling with him. When he was killed right before me, I gave up and lost all hope. He died because his parents delayed in sending the money for his release.
I could not turn back for fear of being killed by another group of rebels. I had no choice but to continue the journey,” he said.
As Kollie narrated through our journey to Redlight, he picked up another passenger, who has had similar experience.”
“Having listened to Kollie for few minutes, this new passenger interrupted and said he faced similar fate.
“Those Arab people are wicked! Those of us, whose relatives paid money for our release, are usually put in a camp to wait for a float that sometime takes months to come by, to cross people by way of the Mediterranean Sea.