Liberia
Hearings set to begin in landmark Liberia war crimes trial
The court is in the West African state for a case against Gibril Massaquoi, a former senior member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a Sierra Leone rebel...
"My father was shot dead before my eyes, right in front of this building. I can never forgive my dad's killer".
Africa has so far recorded around 3.3 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 82,000 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The country went to the polls last week to choose new senators, in an election held alongside the constitutional referendum on term limits and allowing dual nationality.
Voters are also choosing whether to repeal a 1973 ban on dual nationality, a move which some hope could be an economic boon in the poor nation of 4.8 million people.
No Liberian has ever been convicted -- either in the west African country or anywhere else -- of war crimes committed during the conflict.
Leroy Archie Ponpon - who works at Liberia's Temple of Justice, which houses the Supreme Court - set himself on fire outside his workplace after weeks of protesting at delayed pay, one of his colleagues told AFP.
Addressing a news conference in the capital Monrovia, the president's chief of staff Nathaniel McGill pointed out that George Weah, a footballing icon who took office in 2018, had not even finished his first presidential term.
Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence at Frankland prison near Durham in northeastern England after being convicted in 2012 by a court in The Hague of fuelling civil conflict in Sierra Leone.
Liberia has recorded some 250 cases to date, with 24 fatalities -- a low number compared with virus-stricken Europe and the United States.
In his 'Let's Stand Together and Fight Coronavirus', President Weah explains how the virus is spread and urges hand washing to a backing of harmonised female vocals and upbeat guitar music from the group The Rabbis.
Roots FM, owned by Henry Costa, is one of the leaders of a group that organised a large anti-government street protest on 17 June, paralysing several areas of the seaside capital Monrovia.
Police spokesman Moses Carter had originally said 30 children were killed before revising the death toll down to 27.
Payouts are triggered once a virus outbreak crosses an international border and claims at least 20 lives in each of at least two countries.
The Central Bank of Liberia is at the centre of a probe into the cash - materialised between 2016 and 2018 - which prosecutors say the ex-officials cannot account for.
The protesters - in the second major rally since thousands gathered on 7 June - called on the government to improve living conditions amid spiralling inflation.
A Monrovia court ordered former deputy governor Charles Sirleaf, ex-bank head Milton Weeks and bank official Dorbor Hagba to be held in jail pending the scheduling of their trial.
President George Weah is organising all-night prayer vigils on the last Friday of every month for people to pray for infrastructure and economic development.
Fifteen years or so ago, local fishermen who ventured off the coast of Liberia recall expecting to come back with 200, maybe 300, of the fish in their boats.