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Liberia, with its population of with its population 5.058 million (2020), is
located on the west cost of Africa bordered by Sierra Leone on its west, Guinea
to the north, the Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) to the east and the Atlantic Ocean
to its south. There are few countries in Africa which epitomise the failure of an
independent state more than the Republic of Liberia. It is as though everything that
could go wrong has gone wrong and, once again, it is the people who are denied a
meaningful existence or future due to the greed and authoritarianism of its
rulers, all the more ironic as Liberia was founded by former American and
Caribbean slaves seeking a new free way of life. Liberia enjoyed a period of relative calm until 1980 when Master Sergeant
Samuel Doe staged a military coup killing the President William R. Tolbert, Jr. and executed most of his cabinet. Doe then
suspended the constitution effectively ending Africa's first republic. The level
of repression led to a prolonged civil war that erupted in 1989 headed by Charles Taylor in
which President Doe was captured, tortured then killed.
Years
of warfare continued, however Taylor was elected president in 1997 with the
backing of former Libya President Muammar al-Gaddafi. Taylor's regime was just as
harsh and brutal as its predecessor and further conflict erupted across the
country in 1999 with international concern that Taylor was supporting rebels in
neighbouring Sierra Leone. A state of emergency was declared by Taylor in
January 2002 but by August the following year he was forced to step down and leave the country with
the United Nations launching a major peacekeeping mission, however tensions
between various grouping led to ongoing outbreaks of violence. In 2006 Taylor
appeared before a UN backed court in Sierra Leone faced with charges of crimes
against humanity and his trial ended in April 2012 with him being found guilty
of all eleven charges levied against him. He was sentenced the following month
to fifty years in prison.
Today Liberia reflects on a fourteen
year long civil war in which 250,000 lives were lost out of its then even smaller population
of 3.5 million, its infrastructure destroyed, more than 50% of the population living below the poverty line, translating into roughly 2.3 million Liberians who are unable to meet their basic needs with a child mortality rate (under fives) of 84.6 deaths per 1,000 live births (although significantly down from the 284 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1970.)
Since democracy was restored in Liberia following
the civil war, the reconciliation process
has been ongoing as are attempts to rebuild the nation's
shattered economy. Some 16,000 peacekeepers from over a dozen countries served in Liberia from 2003 to 2018 however finally withdrew in the Spring of 2018 ending the United Nations peacekeeping mission as the country transitioned into what is hoped to be a new era of peace with
internal state security taking over. Today Liberia is in 175th place out of 189 countries and
territories in 2019 in terms of life expectancy,
literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards
of a country. On this page you can explore facts and information about
Liberia in a series of articles and videos together with
news about Liberia.
Liberia Profile: Liberia History
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Liberia Profile: Life in Liberia
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Liberia Profile: Liberia Children
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Liberia Profile: Liberia Images
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Liberia Profile: Monrovia Profile
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Liberia Profile: Sponsor Children in Liberia
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