Support to war crimes courtEvangelist Blahyi has been on record for consistently calling for the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia. “I support the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia 100%. When quizzed whether Senator Johnson and others who have been unremorseful should face the war crimes court, Evangelist Blahyi stated: “I think everyone of us should face the war crimes court especially key players who commanded troops”. He was known for his violence and atrocities during the First Liberian Civil War in the early 1990s. During the First Liberian Civil War he led a mercenary unit, many of whom were child soldiers, which was known as the Butt Naked Brigade.

Monrovia – In a bid to boost Liberia’s fight against Climate Change, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Conservation International (CI) have embarked on a project to include gender in the process. On Monday, several female staff from various line ministries and agencies benefitted from a day-long workshop on Green House Gas Inventory. Speaking further, he said the implementation is aligned with the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) developed in 2015 when Liberia had not ratified the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Mr. Becker disclosed that under the ongoing revised Climate Change Action Plan of the country, the NDC, takes into consideration additional five sectors, including Fisheries, Health, Green Corridors and Short-lived climate pollutants. Aether is an environmental friendly group based in the United Kingdom that provides consultancy in air quality and climate change emissions inventories, forecasting and policy analysis.

Monrovia – The campaigner group Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) Liberia has recruited Wilfred Gray-Johnson as its new Executive Director following a meticulous and competitive exercise. For his part, Mr. Gray-Johnson thanked the Board of SDI for his selection and promised to work assiduously for the betterment of the institution. Gray-Johnson also served as Director of the Liberia Peacebuilding Office / Liberia Peacebuilding Fund Secretariat established in January 2009, from 2004 – 2008 a penultimate position he held before joining the SDI. These include the United Nations Common Country Assessment (CCA) for Liberia, the United Nations Development Assistant Framework (UNDAF), and particularly the Government of Liberia Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy (iPRS) and Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). ), from the Methodist University in Liberia.

From amongst the current pool of likely candidates, Liberia must elect Alex Cummings as our President in 2023! The only experience Alex Cummings lacks when compared to other likely competitors is that he has not been elected to any public office in Liberia–yet. The Alex Cummings of 2017 is clearly not the same Alex Cummings heading into 2023. What critics do not know is that with all his wealth, Alex Cummings is a self-made multi-millionaire that every young Liberian should emulate. For these and other reasons, I support Alexander B. Cummings, Jr., and believe he would make a great transformational President of Liberia!

Those busted include Saidu Gray (ring leader in Liberia), Francis Egulansang, David Sinatule, James Sorwah. A copy of such letters obtained by FrontPageAfrica reads:First Fideliter Holdings Inc.10th Floor, Philam life Tower8767 Paseo de Roxas, Makati CityManila. Officials at the NSA told FrontPageAfrica that they could not speak on the matter as investigation was still on going. The source further informed FrontPageAfrica that the ring was busted when some agents of the NSA posed as representatives of the financing company after they received the tip of. The agents had invited the group to a meeting under the guise of validating their documents before the transfer could be made.

Ambassador McCarthy (third from left) with U.S. Embassy staff and visiting delegationMonrovia – U.S. Ambassador Michael McCarthy has hosted a meeting facilitated by Amb. Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Liberian Senate, represented by four members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. The Senators included the honorable James Biney, Chair; the honorable Conmany Wesseh, Co-Chair; the honorable Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, member; and the honorable Augustine Chea, member. Ambassador McCarthy emphasized the close and enduring friendship between the United States and Liberia, and the importance of dialogue to promote mutual understanding.

Monrovia – National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL) has called on the Liberian Government to address series of human rights violations cataloged by the U. S. State Department’s 2020 Human Rights report on Liberia. The others include the government’s attitude towards NGOs’ investigation of alleged abuse, discrimination, societal abuses; and human trafficking and Workers’ rights. Of the143 human rights practices identified, the NCSCL rated 50 or 34.9 percent as ‘good’ practices, 34 or 23.8 percent as fair and the highest 59 or 41.3 percent as poor. Majority of the ‘good’ human rights practices are related to respect for civil liberties (19 of the 50 good practices) while the remaining 12 are scantily spread across the other eight sections, according to the Council. Some ‘good’ human rights practices include: release of pretrial detainees when COVID-19 struck and removal from prisons of juveniles to avoid detention.

MONROVIA – The National Elections Commission (NEC), in keeping with Section 11.2 of the Elections law, has submitted to the Liberian Legislature a draft budget of US$91,958,547.72 for the conduct of the 2023 Presidential and General elections. If accepted, the proposed amount will be the highest budget used to conduct elections in Liberia. The 2023 Elections take US$16,560,425.46, while US$12, 062, 33.05 Was allotted for Presidential Runoff Election. He also suggested that the Legislature allocate certain amount in each annual budget as of now in readiness for the 2023 presidential and legislative elections. The 2023 election will comprise presidential election and election for both houses of the Legislature.

MONROVIA – Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe of Bomi County has responded to media reports that he ran away from Senate’s discussion on the religious holiday bill he proposed. “It is based on my belief and considered learning that God is a God of justice and fair play. However, as it stands, I will not, in good faith, withdraw these legislations.”He promised to be on the floor of the Liberian Senate come Thursday, June 3rd, to ensure that these Bills are placed on the agenda and read on the floor of the Liberian Senate. Interestingly, submission of the legislation formed part of the Senate agenda for its last Tuesday session but could not be read because Senator Snowe was absent. When contacted via text message, Senator Snowe responded: “I traveled.

Liberia Government Needs to Do More to Implement Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women -Civil Society Shadow Report FindsMonrovia – A conglomerate of human rights civil society organizations in Liberia under the banner Civil Society Organizations Human Rights Advocacy Platform (CSO-Platform) of Liberia in a report has indicated that the Government of Liberia needs to do more to implement the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). During the validation of the CEDAW shadow Report on the 9th Periodic Report of Liberia, the shadow report pointed out that Government of Liberia has made little progress on the implementation of the 2015 CEDAW Concluding recommendations. He extended thanks to the OHCHR for all the support that led to the successful preparation of the shadow report. The OHCHR Human Rights Officer said Civil Society organizations and the Government are not enemies as they all work together for the protection of human rights. The validation exercise was attended by representatives from score of civil society organizations, government agencies, United Nations agencies and other institutions.

MONROVIA – The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding and its partners on Monday May 31, 2021hosted a Freedom of Information (FOI) roundtable with journalists and government information officers in Monrovia. It is the first of three regional Freedom of Information (FOI) relationship-building roundtables with twenty-five (25) Freedom of Information Story Grant Fellows, and about 25 Public and County Information Officers. The roundtable held under the theme ‘Building Network to Increase Demand for FOI Use’ was primarily organized to encourage relationship building between public information officers and journalists to bridge bottlenecks in accessing public information. This event (FOI roundtable) forms part of an ongoing Liberia Media Initiative (LMI) project jointly implemented by CEMESP, Internews, the Local Voices Liberia and co-funded by the European Union. As part of the ongoing Liberia Media Initiative project, CEMESP will hold two other roundtables with its 25 FOI fellows and government information officers outside of Monrovia.

The basis of this article stems from the first one in the series: “Common Sense Economics for Liberia”. Liberia will NOT develop if we continue to naively believe that transformation will happen through the efforts of those least prepared to do so! There is nothing that harms Liberia more than the lack of law enforcement and institutional protection of certain powerful individuals. Understand that Liberia does not have a corruption problem; it has a lack of systems and law enforcement problem! Prevention is far way more effective than chasing ghosts who are protected by our current “ghost judiciary”, something that must be changed if Liberia is to have a fighting chance.

Justice shall reign once more. The broad-based civil society organizations are also launching a massive media publication and educational program in preparation for the grand march. The group in a release disclosed that a proposed Act for the establishment of the War Crimes Courts has been drafted by the Liberia National Bar. Since the end of the civil war, no one has been held accountable for the massive killings and massacre of Liberians with the alleged perpetrators walking around the streets with impunity. The Consortium is headed by Liberia National Bar Association and the Secretariat headed by the National Civil Society Council of Liberia.

GRAND CAPE MOUNT – Scores of aggrieved citizens of Grand Cape Mount County have staged a violent protest over the prolong delay by the Government of Liberia (GOL), through the National Elections Commission (NEC), to certificate their Senator-elect Simeon Taylor as the winner of the just ended December 8 senatorial election. Frustratingly, the Supreme Court mandated the NEC to re-conduct deeper investigation into the case which was filed by Mr. Watson. In reaction to the electoral saga, hundreds of residents of the county under the banner: Citizens of Grand Cape Mount County in Demand of their Senator, staged the violent protest in Gbah Foboi during the early morning hours of Monday, May 31. Each county shall elect two Senators and each Senator shall have one vote in the Senate. He commended officers of the Joint Security Task Force assigned in Grand Cape Mount for their “understanding and cooperation” during the protest, adding that, “you made us to feel that we are all Liberians”.

Increase in the Prices of Liberia’s Staple Food Imminent Due to Rising Cost in International Freight, Fees at Freeport of MonroviaRice is distributed and sold at the weekly market in the Zleh Town area of Grand Gedeh county, Liberia. MONROVIA – FrontPageAfrica has reliably gathered that there is an imminent increase in the price of rice due to a sharp increase in cost of international freight and other increments in various fees at the Freeport of Monrovia. They said their attention has also been drawn to the recent increment of fees of vessel and warehouse operation by the Association of Liberia Stacking Companies. In January, APM Terminals which manages the Freeport of Monrovia, announced a 9.67 percent increment on all current charges of its services at the Free Port of Monrovia. The terminal storage and handling cost usually accrue to APM Terminals Liberia, amounts to 0.5% of the total transport and logistics cost incurred by the shipper and with the tariff increase, now amounts to 0.55%.