21 years on: Liberia’s struggle with impunity

Korpo Dennis’s husband, John Browne, was among 250,000 people who died during Liberia’s two civil wars, 1989–1997 and 1999–2003.

Brown and his friends were traveling from Tubmanburg, Bomi County, to Gbarpolu County. She says one of the rebels pointed at him and shot them.

Hopeless and sad, she joined the Women’s Mass Action for Peace group, a group that helped pressure rebel leaders to sign the Accra Peace Agreement in 2003.

In 2002, as the conflict between former president Charles Taylor, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) intensified, Leymah Gbowee, with the assistance of Cllr. Asatu Bah-Kenneth,Christian and Muslim women came together, known as “the Women’s Mass Action for Peace.” 

Korpo became a member to prevent other women from losing their husbands. “I had to do something to end the war so that another woman’s husband would not die, and then she would struggle to take care of her children,” she said. 

Twenty-one years later, Korpo and other women in the mass action group are disappointed that much has not been done, and that, in her own words: “impunity is high.” 

Liberia’s 14-year civil war is one of the deadliest conflicts in West Africa. It lasted from 1989 to 2003. Children were recruited as child soldiers, women were raped and killed, and people were tortured. Many fled to exile in nearby countries as refugees. When the war ended, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up to document the causes of the war by gathering evidence. 

Over 200,000 testimonies were collected. Based on the evidence gathered, the Commission completed its work in 2010, with a set of recommendations, among them the War Crimes Court and reparations, among others. 

Years later, accountability actors say the Government of Liberia has made little effort to ensure that those who participated be held accountable. 

Adama K. Dempster, co-founder of the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, a non-governmental organization that advocates for accountability for war crimes, says, “No wounds have been healed, no reparations have taken place, and no form of apologies has been recorded” for victims of the war.  

Widespread massacres and looting were also recorded during the conflict. One of the most well documented massacres is the one that took place at the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, reportedly carried out by the members of the Armed Forces of Liberia loyal to then President Samuel Kanyon Doe, who was fighting against Charles Taylor’s forces. Doe used the opportunity to also wage a genocidal campaign against members of the Gio and Mano tribes that hailed from Nimba County, where Taylor launched his insurgency. 

Survivors said the soldiers were from the Krahn tribe of President Doe. Most of the refugees were from the Gio and Mano tribes, which have supported the rebel armies that now control most of Monrovia. The refugees fled to the church, hoping to avoid reprisals.

Anderson Miamen, executive director of the Center for Transparency and Accountability (CENTAL), said Liberia has done well in setting up institutions to promote accountability, such as the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and General Auditing Commission (GAC), but has failed to adequately fund them. 

“We need to apply the laws to be more forceful and impartial in enforcing them. We also need to be able to provide resources and support to the institutions that are supposed to lead the process,” he said. 

 The Peace Agreement

The Accra Peace Agreement brought a complete ceasefire, and disarmament. Former soldiers were demobilized, and reintegrated. Taylor, who had managed to get elected President of Liberia in 1997, as well as leaders of other warring factions including the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), were pressured by the Women Mass Action through protest, negotiations, and prayers. 

The agreement was signed between the government of Taylor, and the leaders of warring factions. A ceasefire monitoring and international stabilization force was set up. The Agreement was signed in August 2003.

War and Economic Crimes Court

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report called for the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court to prosecute those who committed atrocities during the civil war. The report was submitted to Liberia’s first post-war President at the time, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, with a public call to establish the Court. However, it did not happen — and not even under the administration of her immediate successor, former President George Weah, who had earlier promised to establish the court when he took office. He was hugely criticised by the public and some members of the international community for reneging on his election promises — especially those pertaining to accountability.

The Weah administration not only reneged on its promises to clamp down on corruption and champion accountability systems under his administration, four auditors were assassinated and, by the end of his presidency, more than half a dozen of his inner circle had been designated in sanctions by the U.S. Departments of Treasury and of State. 

Those sanctioned include then-Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Chief of Staff to President George Weah, now Margibi County senator, Nathanial McGill; former Solicitor General and Chief Prosecutor of Liberia, Sayma Syrenius Cephus; and Liberia’s former Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA), now Rivercess County Senator Bill Twehway, who were sanctioned by the U.S. government for acts of corruption. 

Samuel D. Tweah, Jr, former Minister of Finance and Development Planning, along with Senators Albert Chie and Emmanuel Nuquay,were also sanctioned for their alleged involvement in corruption.

the wives of Tweah, Nuquay, and Chie — Delecia Berry Tweah,  Abigail Chie, and Ruthtoria Brown Nuquay, respectively, were also lassoed in the sanctions, along with Tweah’s and Nuquay’s minor children. 

Under Weah, the Global Barometer Index found Liberia was the third most corrupt country in Africa.

McGillpublicly defended the corruption allegations agains himself, saying, “Even if I was stealing the money and giving it to the Liberian people, that’s a good thing I’m doing because at least I’m not stealing it and carrying it to Europe… We take the small money we get, we go to our people, and we build houses there.”

Nimba County Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, the former warring faction leader who captured, tortured and killed President Doe during the 14-year civil war, was the first to be sanctioned by the United States for corruption in Liberia. 

In May 2024, Joseph Boakai signed an executive order to establish the office that will create the war crimes court. He also appointed Jonathan Massaquoi as head of the office to set up the court. His appointment was withdrawn after criticism from advocates and activists.

For Aaron Weah, a transitional justice scholar, the Liberian Constitution does not capture crimes, including child soldiers and cannibalism, that were committed during the civil war and for which the court would be mandated to prosecute.

“War crimes and economic crimes [and] International human rights violations are not crimes that involve death within the penal code of Liberia. On one hand, for this process to be effective and dispense justice in the manner and form that victims will find acceptable, meeting their expectation that the draft bill that they are supposed to be processing is meant to respect the general admiration of the Liberian people across the country, it means that the law has to be written and conveyed that it accommodates the limitations of the Liberian Constitution.”

Impunity persists

The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and the General Auditing Commission (GAC) were set up to fight corruption in Liberia. But they often lacked the logistics and financial means to function well since they depended on the national budget to operate.

In the lead-up to the elections in 2023 , the government of former president George Weah LACC, passed an act through the Legislature overhauling the LACC, causing the Commission to cease functioning temporarily after former top Weah officials including Jeanine Cooper, the Agriculture Minister; Francis Wreh, the head of the Liberia Institute of Geo-Information Services; and two of his deputies were implicated for corruption.

“If we all can abide by the rule of law and people stop going with impunity — and this impunity not only for government officials — impunity should even go down in our homes,” said Cllr. Asatu Bah-Kenneth, the woman who mobilised the Muslims for the Women’s Mass Action in 2003.

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