Return to homeNational Motto: The Love of Liberty Brought Us
Here."
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A19) 1809 Mar
15, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, first president of Liberia, was born.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1816 A project to repatriate
freed slaves from American was begun by the American Colonization
Society. It was supported by Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Webster and
James Monroe.
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A19)
1821-1867 The American Colonization Society helped
some 13,000 black Americans go to Liberia.
(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M1)
1822 Feb 4, Free American
Blacks settled in West Africa. The first group of colonists landed
at Cape Mesurado and founded Monrovia, named in honor of President
James Monroe. They named their colony Liberia.
(HNPD, 7/26/98)(MC, 2/4/02)(NG, Feb, 04)
1822-1904 Some 23,000 immigrants, mostly from the
US, arrived in Liberia.
(NG, Feb, 04)
1824 Aug 15, Freed American
slaves formed the country of Liberia.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1836 Isaac Wade Ross,
Revolutionary war hero, died in Mississippi. His will stipulated
that his slaves should be emancipated upon his death, but only if
they agreed to go to Liberia. The 1st of almost 200 were finally set
free in 1848. In 2004 Alan Huffman authored "Mississippi in Africa:
The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy
in Liberia Today."
(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M1)
1847 Jul 26, Liberia became the
first African colony to become an independent state. A mutual
agreement between the settlers and the society created the republic
of Liberia. More than 10,000 free blacks had moved there. Joseph
Jenkins Roberts, the Virginia-born son of free blacks, was elected
the first president of Liberia, an African nation that grew out of
the efforts of the American Colonization Society. Roberts made a
state visit to the United States in 1851. The American Colonization
Society supported setting up a colony for freed slaves in Africa as
an alternative to American integration. [see Aug 26]
(HNPD, 7/26/98)(HN, 7/26/98)
1847 Aug 26, Liberia was
proclaimed an independent republic. Freed American slaves founded
Liberia. They modeled their constitution after that of the US,
copied the US flag, and named their capital Monrovia, after James
Monroe, who financed early settlers. Over the decades 16,400 former
slaves made the voyage. They assumed that the 16 native tribes were
there to be exploited.
(AP, 8/26/97)(SFC, 4/10/96, p.A-4)(SFC, 4/16/96,
p.A-9)
1871 Mar 1, J. Milton Turner
was named US minister to Liberia.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1878 Apr 21, Ship Azor left
Charleston with 206 blacks for Liberia.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1895 Mar 18, Some 200 blacks
left Savannah, Ga., for Liberia.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1926 Firestone Tire and Rubber
Co. created the world's largest plantation at Harbel, Liberia, and
rubber became the backbone of the economy. Firestone had signed a
99-year concession agreement with the Liberian government in the
1920s to grow and export rubber.
(AP, 7/1/03)(NG, Feb, 04)(AP, 10/30/09)
1936 Graham Green (1904-1991),
English writer, authored “Journey Without Maps,” a travel account
about a 350-mile, 4-week walk through the interior of Liberia and
Sierra Leone in 1935.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Burnt-Out_Case)(Econ, 9/4/10, p.90)
1943 William Tubman was elected
president of Liberia. He promoted foreign investment and local
participation in government.
(AP, 7/1/03)
1945-1971 William Tubman, president, began to
address the inequalities between the Americo-Liberians and the
native tribes.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
1948 Jan 28, Charles Taylor,
later president of Liberia (1997-2003), was born in Arthington, near
Monrovia. His family descended from freed American slaves He was the
third of 15 children of an Americo-Liberian father, Nelson Taylor.
His mother, Zoe, was a Gola-woman.
(www.liberiapastandpresent.org/charles_taylor.htm)(AP, 7/14/09)
1971 Jul 13, William Tolbert
(1913-1980), vice-president of Lebanon 1951, succeeded William
Tubman as president and continued Tubman’s policies until his own
death in 1980.
(SFC, 4/16/96,
p.A-9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Tolbert,_Jr.)
1971-1980 William Tolbert Jr. succeeded Tubman and
continued his policies.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
1973 Oct 3, Sierra Leone’s
President Stevens engineered the creation of the Mano River Union,
an economic federation of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Guinea joined in
1980.
(http://tinyurl.com/58uymq)
1975 May 25, ECOWAS Treaty1 was
signed. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was
formed in Nigeria with 15 members that included: Benin, Cape Verde,
Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali,
Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Upper Volta (later
Burkina Faso).
(www.sec.ecowas.int/sitecedeao/english/achievements.htm)
1980 Apr 12, In Liberia Master
Sergeant Samuel K. Doe (1951-1990) of the Krahn tribe staged a coup.
Doe, a high school dropout, and a few soldiers killed Pres. William
Tolbert and fatally shot a dozen of his ministers. He was backed by
the US and became one of Liberia’s most brutal dictators.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Doe)(SFC,
4/10/96, p.A-4)(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
1980 May 9, In Florida 35
motorists were killed when a Liberian-flagged freighter rammed the
Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. The freighter MV Summit
Venture collided with a pier (support column) during a blinding
thunderstorm, sending over 1200 feet (366m) of the bridge plummeting
into Tampa Bay. The collision caused six cars, a truck, and a
Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet (46 m) into the water.
(AP,
5/9/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge)
1980 Guinea joined the Mano
River Union, an economic federation of Sierra Leone and Liberia
created in 1973. Due to conflicts involving the countries the
objectives of the Union could not be achieved. The union was
reactivated in 2004.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mano_River_Union)
1980-1989 Samuel Doe held dictatorial power for 9
years. His reign was marked by personal enrichment, favoritism to
his Krahn ethnic group, and the brutal liquidation of opponents.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A16)
1981 Jun 27, The African States
members of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in Liberia,
adopted a Charter on Human and People’s Rights. Article 5
specifically prohibited slavery. It became effective as of October
21, 1986.
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/z1afchar.htm)
1981-1985 The US gave $402 million in aid to
Liberia.
(SFC, 4/10/96, p.A-4)
1983 Charles Taylor fled
Liberia after being accused of embezzling nearly US$1 million. He
was later detained in the United States on a Liberian arrest
warrant.
(AP, 7/14/09)
1984 In Liberia Samuel Doe
allowed the return of political parties under pressure from the US.
(AP, 7/1/03)
1985 In Liberia national
elections were held and Samuel Doe was elected president.
(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A9)(AP, 7/1/03)
1985 Charles Taylor escaped
from a Plymouth County jail in Massachusetts while awaiting
extradition to Liberia, where he was accused of embezzling money as
an official in the dictatorship of Samuel Doe. He went to Libya
received military training as a guest of Col. Moammar Khadafy.
Taylor met Foday Sankoh, a corporal from Sierra Leone while training
in Libya.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A10)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B5)(AP,
12/16/02)
1989 Dec 24, Charles Taylor, a
former cabinet minister under Samuel Doe, led a small group of
fighters across the border from the Ivory Coast into Liberia. Within
a few months he had looted and terrorized much of the countryside
and reached the capital. Taylor led the NPFL or National Patriotic
Front. The NPFL was composed mainly of the Mano and Gio tribes from
northern Nimba County.
(SFC,4/16/96,
p.A-9)(SFC,4/17/96,p.A-8)(SFC,1/30/97,p.A9)(SFC,7/19/97, p.A8)
1990 Jul 23, As rebel forces
closed in on presidential palace, Liberian President Samuel K. Doe
refused to leave until the civil war was decided. Charles Taylor
tried to take Monrovia in this year. He had begun the war in Liberia
from the Ivory Coast in 1989.
(AP, 7/23/97)(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)(SFC, 5/11/96,
p.A-9)
1990 Jul 30, In Monrovia,
Liberia, soldiers opened fire on worshippers in church over 600 Gios
and Manos were killed.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/liberia/army.htm)
1990 Sep 9, Liberian dictator
Pres. Samuel K. Doe was killed after being captured by rebels led by
Prince Johnson. Doe was tortured by rivals and bled to death after
an ear was cut off. The remains of Doe’s Krahn-dominated army
composed the AFL or Armed Forces of Liberia.
(SFC, 4/10/96, p.A-4)(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-8)(AP,
9/9/00)(AP, 2/24/10)
1990 US Marines were sent to
Liberia to rescue American citizens.
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A16)
1990-2004 A 14-year civil war began in Liberia.
1.2 million people were forced flee their homes. 700,000 sought
shelter in Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and other West
African countries. 14 years of fighting left some 250,000 people
dead.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A12)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.48)
1991 Alhaji Kromah, an ethnic
Mandingo, set up ULIMO with a group of former government officials
and army officers.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.A-11)
1991 RUF guerrillas including
Sam Bockerie invaded Sierra Leone from Liberia. Charles Taylor
formed the guerrillas in 1989.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A11)
1992 Oct 15, In Liberia
Operation Octopus began when forces under Charles Taylor attacked
positions of a West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG. Martina
Johnson, the head of the heavy artillery unit for the National
Patriotic Front of Liberia, reportedly led the operation.
(AP, 9/18/14)
1992 Oct 31, It was announced
that five American nuns in Liberia had been shot to death near the
capital Monrovia; the killings were blamed on rebels loyal to
Charles Taylor.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1992 ULIMO, The United Movement
of Liberia arose as a guerilla force to stop cooperation between
Sierra Leone’s rebel leader Foday Sankoh and Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-8)
1992 Charles Taylor again tried
to take Monrovia.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)
1993 Jun 5, Liberian Charles
Taylor's rebellion killed 550 fugitives.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1994 ULIMO split into two
factions: ULIMO-K and ULIMO-J. ULIMO-K was composed of members of
the Mandingo ethnic group. ULIMO-J was made up of ethnic Krahns led
by Roosevelt Johnson.
(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-8)
1994 The Lofa Defense Force was
set up under Francois Massaquoi to clear ULIMO-K out of Lofa County.
It holds no significant territory.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.A-11)
1994 Charles Taylor enlisted
Joshua Milton Blahyi, aka Gen’l. Butt Naked, into his force. After
the fighting Gen’. Naked resumed his birth name and turned into an
evangelical preacher.
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A10)
1995 Aug 20, Liberian warlords
agreed in Nigeria to end hostilities in six-year old civil war,
which had killed 150,000 people. The Economic Community of West
African States brokered a peace treaty between two warring
movements.
(WSJ, 8/21/95, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)(AP,
7/1/03)
1995 Nov 14, In Liberia
extra-judicial killings left 7 soldiers dead. In 2012 a US
immigration judge ordered George Boley (62), the former leader of
the Liberian Peace Council, out of the country in upstate New York
citing "credible reports" that Boley authorized the executions of
seven of his soldiers on this day.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
1996 Jan 1, Rebels massacred
at least 50 civilians at a refugee camp west of Monrovia.
(WSJ, 1/5/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jan 7, Relief workers
said 15,000 people have fled fighting in the northwest and have
crowded into the city of Tubmanburg. Fighting between Ulimo rebels
and West African peacemakers was continuing.
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar, Johnson’s chief of
staff, Armah Youlo, and a group of supporters deposed Johnson as
leader of ULIMO-J.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.A-11)
1996 Apr 6, Fighting and
looting began in Monrovia, Liberia, and a six year civil war resumed
between rival ethnic groups. Supporters of Roosevelt Johnson faced
off against the ruling council of state, which sacked Johnson
as rural development minister and ordered his arrest for murder.
Johnson accused Charles Taylor of violating the Abuja accord of
August, which set up a transitional government.
(SFC, 4/10/96, p.A-4)(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-12)
1996 May 3, Roosevelt Johnson
was sneaked out of Liberia to neighboring Freetown, Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)
1996 May, ECOWAS, the Economic
Community of West African States, whose members are Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo,
has spent huge resources in the peace process for Liberia.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-18)
1996 May 27, The military
militias completed their withdrawal from Monrovia.
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Jun 11, A rusty Russian
freighter carrying hundreds of Liberian refugees remained at sea
after Ghana refused to let it dock.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Jun 17, Health workers
have dug up an additional 150 bodies, many of them headless, along
the beach at Mamba Point. Exhumations started 2 weeks ago and about
500 bodies have been found and reburied. 1,500 bodies were exhumed
from around the capital.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A9)(USAT, 6/27/96, p.10A)
1996 Sep 7, Emergency food from
the World Food Program reached Tubmanburg, Liberia, where half the
35,000 population suffered from extreme hunger.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A11)
1996 Ivory Coast was flooded
with 350,000 Liberian refugees, who have fled across the border
since Charles Taylor began the war from the Ivory Coast six years
ago.
(SFC, 5/11/96, p.A-9)
1997 Jan 31, The deadline for
some 14,000 rebels to hand in their weapons.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1997 May 30, Elections were set
for this date.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1997 Jun 3, Reinforcements from
a peace-keeping force in Liberia was sent in to help Nigerian troops
against the insurrectionist troops of Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 6/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 15, In Liberia pres.
candidate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (58), a banker and UN official, led
a women’s solidarity march. She had recently emerged as the leading
rival of warlord Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.A9)(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A9)
1997 Jul 22, In Liberia results
from the election showed Charles Taylor in the lead with about 75 of
the vote.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 2, Charles Taylor was
sworn in as president of Liberia.
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 8, In Liberia some
200,000 refugees from Sierra Leone had spilled over from escalating
violence.
(WSJ, 9/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 4, Samuel Dokie, an
opposition politician, was found slain in Bong County with his wife
and bodyguard. He had been reported missing after being arrested by
security men in Pres. Taylor’s stronghold of Gbarnga.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.B5)
1998 Sep 19, Fighting in
Monrovia left at least 33 dead as the government tried to arrest
Roosevelt Johnson, former rebel leader. The next day he was accused
of plotting against Pres. Taylor and fled to the US Embassy.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A14)
1998 Sep 25, In Liberia the US
transported Roosevelt Johnson out of the country to Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 9/26/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep, Clashes between the
Krahn under Roosevelt Johnson and state forces in Monrovia left 300
dead and created 4,000 new refugees.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A16)
1999 Apr, Violence occurred in
Voinjama and left a number of people dead.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A16)
1999 Jun 8, Pres. Charles
Taylor announced that the ECOMAG intervention force would leave for
good on July 26 marking the end of the 7-year civil war.
(SFC, 6/9/99, p.C4)
1999 Aug 11, In Liberia 6
European relief workers were kidnapped in Kolahun by insurgents
based in Guinea.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.D2)
1999 Aug 13, In Liberia 7
abducted aid workers were freed and some 90 other UN and foreign
workers fled into Guinea to avoid fighting.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C1)
1999 Aug 20, It was reported
that tens thousands of refugees from Sierra Leone had fled to
northern Liberia and that many were robbed and killed by retreating
rebels.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug, Violence occurred in
Kolahun and left a number of people dead.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec, Sam Bockerie fell out
with RUF leader Foday Sankoh over diamonds and fled to Liberia with
several hundred loyalists.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A11)
1999 Britain and the US
threatened to suspend aid after Liberia was accused of supporting
militants in neighboring Sierra Leone.
(AP, 7/1/03)
2000 Mar 15, In Liberia the
government closed 2 leading independent radio stations saying they
posed a security risk.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2000 Apr 16, The winners of the
Goldman Environmental Prize included: Alexander Peal (55), for
environmental work and founding a national park in Liberia.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.A2)
2000 Jul 31, US and British
diplomats accused the Pres. Charles Taylor of Liberia and Pres.
Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso of trading arms for diamonds and
aiding the rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 19, Four journalists
for British TV were charged with espionage while filming for a
3-part documentary about Liberia, Mauritania, Mali and Angola.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 25, Liberia freed the
4 arrested TV journalists.
(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A9)
2000 Oct-Feb, Slovak brokers
were involved in a plan to ship Mi24 helicopter gunships from
Kyrgyzstan to Liberia. One was shipped and another was confiscated
by Slovak customs agents.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
2000 Dec, It was reported that
Robert Taylor, brother of Pres. Charles Taylor, headed the Forestry
Development Authority and allowed Oriental Timber of Hong Kong to
wipe out entire forests.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B5)
2000 Dec 20, A UN panel linked
Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor to illegal diamond smuggling and arms
trafficking with the rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.C6)
2000 Liberian forces launched
an offensive against rebels in the country's north.
(AP, 7/1/03)
2000 A shipping concern in
Virginia, LISCR, helped Pres. Taylor procure weapons in violation of
the UN arms embargo. The Liberian International Ship and Corporate
Registry began managing Liberia’s shipping regitry this year.
(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A1)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.45)
2000 A loose coalition named
"Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy" (LURD) began
fighting against Charles Taylor. Covert support included the US.
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A19)
2001 Jan 19, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor said that he has ended support of the RUF in Sierra
Leone and would submit to int’l. scrutiny of his finances.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 7, The UN Security
Council imposed an embargo on Liberia’s trade in weapons and
diamonds in an effort to halt arms to rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/8/01, p.A13)
2001 Mar 20, Liberia ordered
its security forces to seal its border with Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 May 4, The UN Security
Council imposed sanctions against Liberia for failing to sever ties
with rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D2)
2001 May 23, Pres. Bush banned
the import of rough diamonds from Liberia in an effort to deprive
rebels in Sierra Leone of a source of funds.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.C3)
2001 Nov 2, It was reported
that Ibrahim Bah, a Libyan-trained former Senegalese rebel, lived in
Burkina Faso and selected diamond dealers to handle deals in Liberia
between rebels from Sierra Leone and the al Qaeda network.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.A8)
2001 Nov, In Liberia government
forces started a new offensive against rebels.
(AP, 7/1/03)
2002 Jan, More than 50,000
Liberia and Sierra Leone refugees fled fighting.
(AP, 7/1/03)
2002 Feb 7, Rebel forces,
Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, attacked Klay
Junction 25 miles north of Monrovia.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb 19, Rebels were
repelled at Heindi and Bong Mines, 20 miles northeast of Monrovia,
as some 15,000 civilians fled.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A13)
2002 Apr 25, Police shut down
the independent Analyst newspaper and arrested Tiawan Gongloe, a
leading human rights lawyer.
(SFC, 4/26/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 29, Pres. Taylor
suspended all political activity. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, leader of
the opposition Unity Party, returned to Liberia to gear up for
elections.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A13)
2002 May 9, Many civilians were
reported killed as rebels attacked Gbarnga, the stronghold of Pres.
Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A16)
2002 May 13, Rebels attacked
Arthington and threatened to move on Monrovia unless Pres. Charles
Taylor is arrested and tried.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A14)
2002 May 16, Liberian forces
claimed to have stopped the rebel offensive to have killed 100 in
the process.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A20)
2002 May 20, Liberia rejected a
cease-fire appeal by neighboring West African nations and ordered
its forces to look for a missing British priest and 60-blind
Liberian civilians last seen May 13.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)
2002 Jun 8, Liberian troops
recaptured a northern town believed to have been used by insurgents
as a transit point for supplies and rebels fighters based in
neighboring Guinea.
(AP, 6/8/02)
2002 Jun 20, Liberian rebels
attacked a refugee camp near the border with Sierra Leone, seizing
five nurses and sending thousands fleeing as they battled government
troops. Four people died in the fighting.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002 Jul 20, Refugees in flight
from Liberia's war surged to 200,000, and those reaching safety in
neighboring Guinea spoke of worsening atrocities by President
Charles Taylor's forces: looting, raping, burning and killing
trapped villagers. Jubilant government troops strutted through
heavily looted Tubmanburg after driving away rebel forces who had
controlled it for close to three months.
(AP, 7/20/02)(AP, 7/21/02)
2002 Jul 26, Liberian attackers
crossed into eastern Sierra Leone and abducted 18 villagers, in the
second such raid in just over a week.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Sep 1, In Liberia rebel
forces shelled the northern town of Voinjama in a push to recapture
their former stronghold from government forces.
(AP, 9/1/02)
2002 Sep 14, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor lifted the state of emergency he imposed eight months
ago, declaring that the rebel insurrection against his government
had been all but crushed.
(AP, 9/14/02)
2002 Sep 21, In Liberia
government forces and rebels battled for at least three northern and
northwestern towns in a new outbreak of fighting near the border
with Guinea.
(AP, 9/21/02)
2002 Dec 7, In Liberia
civilians were killed in a government offensive on a rebel-held
town. Their deaths were blamed on crossfire.
(AP, 12/9/02)
2002 Dec 13, In northwest
Liberia an overcrowded boat capsized, killing at least 48 people and
leaving more than 100 others missing.
(AP, 12/16/02)
2003 Jan 11, It was reported
that former combatants from Liberia and Sierra Leone were pouring
into Ivory Coast to fight with the rebels.
(SFC, 1/11/03, p.A8)
2003 Feb 1, In Liberia fighting
between government and rebel forces raged within 60 miles of
Monrovia.
(AP, 2/1/03)
2003 Mar 3, A Special Court for
Sierra Leone indicted Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor on charges
including murder, rape, sexual slavery, conscripting child soldiers
and terrorizing civilians for his support of rebels during Sierra
Leone civil war. The Indictment was unsealed on June 4, 2003, during
Taylor's first overseas trip since his indictment.
(AP, 7/14/09)
2003 May 6, The Liberian
government announced that Sam Bockerie (39), a guerrilla RUF leader,
was killed in a shootout with Liberian soldiers.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 4, A UN-backed war
crimes court indicted Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor, accusing him of
"the greatest responsibility" in the vicious 10-year civil war in
neighboring Sierra Leone.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 5, In Liberia deputy
ministers Isaac Nuhan Vaye and John Winpoe Yormie were arrested
about the same time that Pres. Taylor announced that a coup plot had
been uncovered. Vaye and Yormie were later reported killed.
(SFC, 7/16/03, p.A12)
2003 Jun 9, As rebels bore down
on the capital of Liberia, French helicopters rescued more than 500
Americans, Europeans and other foreigners.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2003 Jun 17, Liberia's
President Charles Taylor pledged to yield power as part of a
cease-fire with rebels, but his government quickly hedged on the
resignation.
(AP, 6/17/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor renounced his peace pledge to cede power and
announced that he will serve to the January 2004 end of his term —
and might run again.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 23, The main rebel
group in Liberia said it was pulling out of peace talks and accused
the top peace mediator of allowing Pres. Taylor to renege on a
promise to step down. Swiss authorities ordered a freeze on
any bank accounts of Pres. Charles Taylor, so war crimes prosecutors
can search for possible illegal diamond profits linked to West
Africa's conflicts.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 26, In Monrovia,
Liberia, 3 days of rocket and mortar fire left at least 200
civilians dead.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.A17)
2003 Jun 28, West African
leaders promised to deploy a peace force of at least 5,000 troops to
warring Liberia after a cease-fire has been reached, and said France
had offered soldiers and logistical support.
(AP, 6/28/03)
2003 Jul 3, The US military
commander in Europe was ordered to begin planning for possible
American intervention in Liberia.
(AP, 7/3/03)
2003 Jul 4, Liberia's President
Charles Taylor, under US pressure to quit, said he had agreed to
step down. A senior Nigerian official said Taylor had accepted an
offer of asylum.
(AP, 7/4/03)
2003 Jul 6, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor announced that he would leave the country and accept
refuge in Nigeria.
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 8, US military experts
arrived in Liberia to assess the need for help in the local civil
war.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 20, In Liberia rebels
advanced deeper into the war-ravaged capital, trading mortar,
grenade and machine-gun fire with government troops.
(AP, 7/20/03)
2003 Jul 21, In Liberia mortar
shells hit the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in the Monrovia,
injuring at least three people. Fighting in the Liberian capital of
Monrovia left over 600 dead.
(AP, 7/21/03)(AP, 7/22/03)
2003 Jul 24, In Monrovia,
Liberia, the bloodiest mortar attack in days killed at least 12 men,
women and children.
(AP, 7/25/03)
2003 Jul 25, Pres. Bush ordered
a naval amphibious force from the Mediterranean to position itself
off the coast of Liberia.
(SFC, 7/26/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 26, In Liberia a
mortar attack into a church harboring thousands of refugees, killed
at least 15 and wounded about 55 others.
(AP, 7/26/03)
2003 Jul 28, In Liberia rebels
captured the second-largest city of Buchanan, depriving embattled
President Charles Taylor of his last significant port outside the
besieged capital.
(AP, 7/28/03)
2003 Jul 29, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor's forces launched what they called a major
counterattack on the key port of Buchanan, battling to take back
Liberia's second-largest city a day after it fell to insurgents.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Aug 1, In Monrovia,
Liberia, shelling erupted after a one-day lull, killing at least 9
people. Top West African officials flew into the capital to press
the country's president to cede power after peacekeepers arrive, but
Charles Taylor kept them waiting by reportedly heading to a southern
war zone. Taylor actually flew to Libya to gather arms and
ammunition.
(AP, 8/1/03)(SFC, 8/8/03, p.A10)
2003 Aug 1, The UN Security
Council approved sending a multinational force to Liberia.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 Aug 2, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor agreed to cede power on Aug. 11.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 Aug 4, West African forces
arrived in Liberia to oversee the departure of President Charles
Taylor.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2003 Aug 7, In Liberia Charles
Taylor picked Vice Pres. Moses Blah (56) as his successor. West
African peacekeepers entered Liberia's rebel-besieged capital.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2003 Aug 7, Bangladesh and
Namibia pledged more than 6,000 troops for a UN peace-keeping force
to replace multinational soldiers now deploying in war-torn Liberia.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 10, Liberian President
Charles Taylor delivered a farewell address to a nation bloodied by
14 years of war.
(AP, 8/11/04)
2003 Aug 11, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor shook hands with his designated successor as his
long-promised resignation ceremony started in Monrovia. A UN
official later reported that Taylor took $3 million with him, that
had been donated for disarming and demobilizing thousands of armed
combatants. Taylor flew into exile in Nigeria following his
resignation.
(AP, 8/11/03)(SFC, 9/6/03, p.A3)(AP, 7/14/09)
2003 Aug 12, Liberia's leading
rebel movement agreed to lift its siege of the capital and vital
port within two days, allowing food to flow to hundreds of thousands
of hungry people.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2003 Aug 14, Dozens of American
troops landed at Liberia's main airport, increasing the U.S.
presence to boost West African peacekeepers, as rebels began
withdrawing from Monrovia. A "quick reaction" force of 150 combat
troops were sent to back up Nigerian peacekeepers.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 15, Tens of thousands
Liberian civilians, desperate for food, broke through barricades on
Monrovia's front-line bridges, reuniting the capital after 10 weeks
of rebel siege.
(AP, 8/15/03)
2003 Aug 18, In Accra, Ghana,
Liberia's government and rebels signed a peace accord to end 14
years of vicious war with plans for elections in 2 years.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 21, Liberia's rebels
and government chose Gyude Bryant, a gentle-mannered businessman, to
lead a transition administration.
(AP, 8/21/03)
2003 Aug 24, A 150-strong US
Marine force ended an 11-day deployment and headed back to warships
off the coast of Monrovia, Liberia.
(AP, 8/24/03)
2003 Oct 1, In Liberia West
African forces traded their camouflage helmets Wednesday for the
blue ones of the UN. Hours later clashes flared between rebels and
loyalist forces in Monrovia, leaving three civilians dead.
(Reuters, 10/1/03)
2003 Oct 14, In Liberia
businessman Gyude Bryant was sworn in as leader of the post-war
government, taking up a 2-year term.
(AP, 10/14/03)
2003 Nov 7, The first UN peace
missions to Liberia's rebel-held far east found deserted towns
emptied of all but looting insurgents, and terrorized civilians
under rebel grip or lying rotting, dead, in the bush.
(AP, 11/8/03)
2003 Nov 10, The US State Dept.
distanced itself from a congressional push to capture toppled
Liberian leader Charles Taylor in Nigeria via a $2 million reward.
(SFC, 11/15/03, p.A9)
2003 Nov 25, Nigeria's
President Olusegun Obasanjo said he will surrender ousted Liberian
leader Charles Taylor to face a war crimes trial if Liberia asks.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2003 Dec 4, Interpol put ousted
Liberian leader Charles Taylor on its most-wanted list, issuing a
"red notice" calling for his arrest on war crimes charges in Sierra
Leone's civil war.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Dec 7, In Liberia
government troops launched U.N.-sponsored disarmament.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 10, In Liberia
rampages by ex-government fighters left at least nine people dead in
Monrovia. All but one of the deaths came in fighting between U.N.
troops and the ex-militiamen.
(AP, 12/10/03)
2003 Dec 15, The UN said it was
suspending for a month a disarmament campaign in war-battered
Liberia so it can improve a camp for former combatants.
(AP, 12/15/03)
2003 Dec 22, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to maintain sanctions on Liberia including
an arms embargo and a ban on importing diamonds from the west
African nation.
(AP, 12/23/03)
2003 The UN imposed a ban in
Liberia on trade in logs due to uncontrolled and environmentally
devastating logging.
(Econ, 3/8/08, p.92)
2004 Jan 6, In Liberia the LURD
and MODEL rebel groups demanded the resignation of Gyude Bryant,
interim government head.
(Econ, 1/31/04, p.48)
2004 Jan 20, Asha Keita-Conneh,
the wife of the leader of Liberia's most powerful rebel movement
announced she was taking charge, backed by dozens of guerrilla
commanders in ousting a husband whose ambitions she said were
endangering the nation's hard-won peace.
(AP, 1/20/04)
2004 Feb 6, International
donors pledged $520 million to start the long process of turning
Liberia from a failed war-ravaged state into a democracy with a
thriving economy.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 May 24, In Liberia an
American citizen working with a U.S. military assessment team was
killed in his hotel room in the capital Monrovia.
(AP, 5/26/04)
2004 Jul 23, President Bush
froze the assets of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, his
family and top aides and accused them of undermining the country's
transition to democracy.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2004 Oct 1, The United Nations
launched a massive voluntary repatriation program to return an
estimated 340,000 Liberian refugees still scattered across West
Africa.
(AP, 10/1/04)
2004 Oct 29, In Liberia mobs
brandishing machetes, sticks and Kalashnikov rifles rampaged through
Monrovia, prompting interim head of state Gyude Bryant to order an
immediate daylight curfew to stem the rare Muslim-Christian
violence. A UN armored vehicle trying to disperse a crowd
inadvertently crushed three people to death.
(AP, 10/29/04)
2004 Oct 30, Liberians ventured
back onto the streets of Monrovia during a temporary lifting of a
round-the-clock curfew imposed after at least 7 people were killed
in religious riots.
(AP, 10/30/04)
2004 Nov 3, Liberia's three
former warring factions jointly announced they had disarmed and
disbanded their forces, marking a milestone in a quest for peace in
this battered West African nation after nearly 15 years of war.
(AP, 11/4/04)
2004 Dec 21, The U.N. Security
Council voted unanimously to maintain economic sanctions against
Liberia but promised to review a ban on diamond sales in three
months and a ban on timber exports in six months.
(AP, 12/21/04)
2005 Oct 11, Liberia held
presidential elections. 22 candidates included an international
soccer star, two former warlords and a Harvard-educated woman.
Election officials using battery-powered lanterns counted ballots
through the night from the country's first postwar polls. Ex-soccer
star George Weah led 21 rivals.
(AP, 10/11/05)(Reuters, 10/11/05)(WSJ, 10/12/05,
p.A1)
2005 Oct 12, Officials said
former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and soccer star George
Weah emerged as early front-runners in Liberia's first post-war
elections.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 13, Soccer star George
Weah took an early lead as results trickled in from Liberia's first
post-war elections, but he seemed likely to face a run-off with
former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 19, Libya sent to
prison for 18 months a blogger who criticized the government on the
Internet. A Tripoli court convicted Abdel Raziq al-Mansuri of
illegal possession of a handgun and sentenced him to 18 months'
imprisonment. A rights group said that after detaining al-Mansuri,
Libyan security officials searched his home and "found an old pistol
that belonged to his father."
(AP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 8, Liberia held runoff
elections.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 10, In Liberia Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, a former finance minister and Harvard graduate,
edged closer to becoming Africa's first elected female leader, while
her soccer star opponent alleged fraud in the presidential runoff.
With 80% of votes counted, Johnson-Sirleaf had 58% and her opponent,
George Weah, had 42%.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 23, Officials declared
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf the winner of Liberia's first postwar
balloting, making her Africa's first elected female president.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Dec 1, A UN Security
Council committee called on all governments to freeze the assets and
travel of two individuals linked to international gunrunner Victor
Bout over past arms sales to Liberia. The council added Syrian-born
accountant Richard Ammar Chichakli of Texas and Ukrainian-born
businessman Valeriy Naydo, with an address in the United Arab
Emirates, to its list of people whose assets and travel are to be
frozen around the world.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 8, Firestone, a
multinational rubber manufacturing giant known for its automobile
tires, has come under fire from human rights and environmental
groups for its alleged use of child labor and slave-like working
conditions at a plantation in Liberia.
(http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/123600/1/)
2005 Dec 16, Liberian electoral
authorities dismissed international soccer star George Weah's claims
that fraud had robbed him of victory in a presidential run-off vote
last month, but his party vowed to appeal.
(Reuters, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 21, George Weah, the
loser of Liberia's first postwar presidential elections, dropped his
legal challenge of the results, saying he would accept the outcome
in the interest of national reconciliation.
(AP, 12/21/05)
2005 Dec 21, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to maintain diamond and timber sanctions
against Liberia but said it will lift the embargoes when the
country's new government ends illicit trade in its valuable
resources.
(AP, 12/21/05)
2005 P.W. Singer authored
“Children at War,” a detailed analysis of the use of child soldiers
around the world, including Liberia and Sierra Leone.
(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C3)
2006 Jan 6, Liberia's
President-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf agreed to pay out benefits and
pensions to widows of soldiers killed in a civil war after they
blocked roads in the capital Monrovia in protest.
(Reuters, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 16, Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf pledged a "fundamental break" with Liberia's violent past as
she was sworn in as president, carving her name into history as
Africa's first elected female head of state.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Feb 1, Liberia’s Pres.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf fired top officials appointed by a
transitional administration to help run the Finance Ministry, a
perceived center of corruption.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Libya the
leaders of Sudan and Chad signed a peace agreement to end increasing
tension over Sudan's Darfur region, pledging to normalize diplomatic
relations and deny refuge to each other's rebel groups. A communique
issued by Sudan, Chad and Libya, as well as Burkino Faso, Congo and
the Central African Republic, whose leaders attended the talks, said
a committee of African countries overseen by Libya would monitor the
implementation of the deal.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 20, Liberia's
president inaugurated a truth commission to investigate crimes and
human rights abuses committed in the war-battered country over the
last quarter century.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Mar 14, In Italy 2 local
trains collided head-on outside a station near Milan, killing at
least two people.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 17, Liberia said it
has asked Nigeria to hand over former Pres. Charles Taylor, who is
living there in exile and wanted on war crimes charges for his role
in Sierra Leone's civil war.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 21, President Bush
welcomed Liberia’s Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to the White House,
calling Africa's first democratically elected female head of state
"a pioneer."
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 28, Officials said
former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his
Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war
crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a
half-million Africans. Taylor was arrested trying to cross the
border into Cameroon. He then was flown back to Liberia.
(AP, 3/28/06)(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 29, Former Liberian
President Charles Taylor, accused of war crimes, was flown to Sierra
Leone after he was captured in northern Nigeria.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2006 Apr 4, Charles Taylor
appeared in a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone with 11 counts of
crimes against humanity and other violations of int’l. law.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.46)
2006 Apr 24, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. The winners
included Craig Williams (58) for helping to persuade Congress to
order the Defense Dept. to consider alternatives to incinerating
chemical weapons; Tarcisio Feitosa (35) of Brazil for his campaign
against rampant logging; Olya Melen (26) of Ukraine for her suits
forcing the government to scale back a large canal project impacting
wetlands; Yu Xiaogang (35) of China for his reports on damages
caused by new dams; Silas Siakor (36) of Liberia for his
documentation showing how logging was used to fund civil war; and
Anne Kajir of Papua New Guinea for her work to get reimbursements
from logging companies to peasants.
(WSJ, 4/24/06, p.B7)
2006 May 8, A report said UN
peacekeepers, aid workers and teachers are having sex with Liberian
girls as young as 8 in return for money, food or favors, threatening
efforts to rebuild a nation wrecked by war.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 21, In Liberia tens of
thousands of children marched against hunger, adding their voices to
a global event to tackle food shortages that many in the
war-battered west African nation have felt firsthand.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 Jun 1, Swedish lawmakers
approved a law that makes it possible for the Scandinavian country
to imprison former Liberian President Charles Taylor if a UN-backed
tribunal convicts him of war crimes.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 5, Liberia, the first
African country led by a democratically elected woman, began
recruiting women into its new postwar army.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 13, The UN Security
Council eased a ban on weapons sales to Liberia so it could arm
newly trained security forces. The US proposed lifting a UN embargo
on Liberian timber exports.
(AP, 6/13/06)
2006 Jun 15, Britain promised
to hold Liberia's Charles Taylor in jail if he is convicted of war
crimes, paving the way for Liberia's former president to be tried in
The Hague.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 20, A senior UN
official marked World Refugee Day by welcoming home 125 Liberians
from Sierra Leone where they lived for years seeking haven from
Liberia's civil war. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was
taken to a Dutch prison to await a UN war crimes trial for the
killing, rape or mutilation of hundreds of thousands in West Africa.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 22, Liberia's truth
commission formally began work to document atrocities committed
during nearly a quarter-century of conflict including the country's
14-year civil war (1990-2004), which left some 250,000 dead.
(AP, 6/23/06)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.48)
2006 Jul 24, Liberia began
training the first soldiers of a post-war army that officials hope
will grow into a small but effective force to take over peacekeeping
from UN troops.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 26, Power was restored
to parts of Liberia's dilapidated capital Monrovia for the first
time in 15 years, another step in the country's emergence from more
than a decade of civil war.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Aug 30, Nigerian officials
and the UN refugee agency appealed to some 6,000 recalcitrant
Liberian refugees to go back home, warning that time and hospitality
were fast running out for them.
(AFP, 8/30/06)
2006 Oct 8, Liberia’s
presidency said ECOWAS leaders, who met in Nigeria on Oct 6, had
agreed for an extension of the term of office of Ivory Coast
President Laurent Gbagbo by 12 months, paving the way for
presidential and general elections there.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 10, Liberia's truth
commission began taking public testimony.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Dec 6, The US indicted
Charles McArthur Emmanuel (29), son of former Liberian President
Charles Taylor, with committing torture in Liberia. This was the
Justice Department's first case under a 12-year-old anti-torture
law. The indictment came the day before Emmanuel, He currently in
federal custody was scheduled to be sentenced on the passport fraud
charges in Miami.
(Reuters, 12/6/06)
2006 Antoinette Sayeh,
Liberia’s finance minister, called on foreign creditors to forgive
the country’s $3.7 billion external debt.
(Econ, 12/16/06, p.48)
2006 Arcelor Mittal, the
world’s largest steel company, negotiated a deal with Liberia’s
government to restart operations at the mine in Nimba County with a
new investment of $1.5 billion. The company said it would create
some 3,500 jobs.
(Econ, 8/23/08, p.38)
2007 Jan 18, India prepared to
send 125 of its crack policewomen to Liberia to act as UN
peacekeepers, the first time the world body has deployed an
all-female unit.
(AFP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 30, The first
all-female UN peacekeeping unit, made up of 103 women from India,
arrived in Liberia to help the West African nation recover from 14
years of on-and-off civil war.
(Reuters, 1/30/07)
2007 Feb 13, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice said the US plans to cancel $391 million in
outstanding debt owed by Liberia, and she urged others to help the
struggling West African nation.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Apr 27, The UN Security
Council lifted its embargo on Liberia's diamond exports, saying the
west African nation has made progress in certifying the origin of
its rough diamonds. A multi-day strike at the Firestone Rubber
plantation in Liberia turned violent as police clashed with striking
workers, leaving at least six people wounded.
(AFP, 4/27/07)(AP, 4/27/07)
2007 May 1, Liberia relaunched
its diamond trade after the UN lifted an embargo, hoping the revival
of the industry will fund reconstruction rather than lead to more
bloodshed.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Jun 4, Charles Taylor
boycotted the start of his Liberia war-crimes trial at the Hague.
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 20, Officials said
Liberia's former House speaker and an ex-military commander have
been charged with treason for their involvement in an alleged coup
plot.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 28, The Liberian
government said it had lifted a six-year moratorium on the diamond
trade, put in place after former President Charles Taylor was
accused of using "blood diamonds" to fuel civil war in neighboring
Sierra Leone.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the
last refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been
allowed to settle and they will have access to work, education and
health on the same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 25, It was reported
that Liberia had some 2,511 ships registered under its flag, the
world’s 2nd largest fleet after Panama, which had 7,357. The
population was reported to be 3.3 million, with two-thirds of the
people living on less than a dollar a day. Since 2000 the Liberian
International Ship and Corporate Registry, a Virginia-based company,
managed the registry.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.44)
2007 Nov 2, A UN helicopter
crashed on a routine flight in northern Liberia, killing two crew
members and leaving a third missing.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel signed an
agreement with Liberia to extract diamonds from the African nation,
seven months after sanctions barring Liberia from exporting the gems
were lifted.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Dec 5, Liberia cleared its
debt arrears with the World Bank, paving the way for new development
lending and debt cancellation that will help the West African
country rebuild after years of civil war.
(Reuters, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 7, Gyude Bryant, a
former president of Liberia (2003-2005), was arrested for violating
the conditions of his bail while on trial on charges of embezzling
$1.3 million in government funds.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2008 Jan 20, Joshua Milton
Blahyi (37), one of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, known
as Gen. Butt Naked for charging into battle wearing only boots,
spoke of his role under Charles Taylor in the civil war. He returned
last week to confess his role in terrorizing the nation, saying he
is responsible for 20,000 deaths.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Feb 21, President George
W. Bush promised US support for Liberia in its recovery from a
crippling civil war as he visited the close U.S. ally on the last
stop of a five-nation tour of Africa.
(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 28, Liberia's Health
Minister Walter Gwanigale said health services are chronically
understaffed with only 51 native doctors in the west African nation.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Liberia at least
eight people suffocated at an overcrowded stadium during a soccer
match between Liberia and Gambia.
(www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/02/2263028.htm)
2008 Aug 18, US and Liberian
officials said US Peace Corps volunteers will return to Liberia for
the first time since civil war broke out in this West African nation
nearly two decades ago.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Florida the son
of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty by a US
court in Miami of torture in the first prosecution under a
14-year-old law that allows citizens to be prosecuted for such
crimes committed abroad. Charles Taylor Jr. was arrested at Miami
International Airport in 2006 and pleaded guilty to a charge of
lying about his father's identity on a passport application.
(Reuters, 10/30/08)
2009 Jan 9, In Miami Charles
Taylor Jr. (31), the son of former Liberian President Charles
Taylor, was sentenced to 97 years in prison for mutilations and
executions carried out in Liberia, in the first US prosecution for
torture committed abroad.
(Reuters, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 23, Officials said
Liberia's worst caterpillar plague in three decades has spread to
neighboring Guinea after swarms of the crop-eating insects
devastated more than 45 towns.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 25, Liberia’s Ministry
of Agriculture said it has set up a command post and called on
international experts to help fight an invasion by millions of
crop-devouring caterpillars that are eating their way across the
country with dire economic consequences.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Mar 12, Liberia’s
agriculture ministry said the country has been hit by a 2nd invasion
of crop-destroying caterpillars. Over a hundred villages have so far
been affected by the plague.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 May 29, The nonbinding New
York Declaration, an agreement between the signatory flag states
which condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and
seafarers, was originally tabled by The Bahamas, the Republic of
Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Republic of
Panama, four nations that account for more than half of global
shipping.
(www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/13476.html)
2009 Jul 2, Liberia's truth and
reconciliation commission recommended that ex-President Charles
Taylor and seven other former warlords be prosecuted for crimes
against humanity for their alleged roles in the West African
country's civil war.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 6, Liberia's truth and
reconciliation commission recommended barring President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf and dozens of other high-profile figures from public
office for 30 years for supporting armed groups in the country's
civil wars.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 16, In Phoenix,
Arizona, 4 boys, all Liberian refugees (9-14) lured a Liberian girl
(8) to a storage shed and raped her. Charges against one of the
boys, aged 8, were dropped on Dec 16 after a judge ruled the boy was
not competent to stand trial.
(SFC, 8/10/09, p.A4)(SFC, 12/17/09, p.A12)
2009 Aug 13, In Liberia US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed the country’s post-war
transition to democracy and threw support behind President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, who has faced calls to resign because she helped
fund a warlord.
(AFP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug 24, An American UN
peacekeeper under investigation for sexual exploitation and abuse of
minors in Liberia was found dead in his house in Monrovia. Sources
said it appeared that the American, a civilian in the Liberia
mission, known as UNMIL, had committed suicide due to the
investigations.
(Reuters, 8/26/09)
2009 Sep 2, Liberia's Defense
Minister Brownie Samukai said police had arrested six Pakistani men
earlier in the week who tried to enter Liberia on fake US passports
with possible intent to carry out terrorism.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 16, Liberia's
parliament approved a new law to crack down on narco trafficking
amid concerns that druglords want to turn the west African nation
into a transit point.
(AFP, 9/16/09)
2009 Oct 28, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms stormed
a guest house used by UN staff in the heart of Kabul. 11 people were
killed, including 5 UN staff, 3 attackers, 2 security guards and an
Afghan civilian. Liberian election worker Yah Lydia Wonyene (47) was
one of the five UN staffers killed. It was the biggest in a series
of attacks intended to undermine next month's presidential runoff
election. The assault included rocket attacks at the presidential
palace and the city's main luxury hotel. Two NATO members were
killed in bomb blasts in the south, including one American.
(AP, 10/28/09)(AP, 10/29/09)(AP, 11/22/09)
2009 Oct 29, The US rubber
company Firestone said in a statement that it has conducted its own
extensive testing of discharge water in Liberia and found it was not
harmful to human health. The Liberian government has said a
three-month investigation found high levels of orthophosphate being
released into the water.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,
president of Liberia, authored “This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of
a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President.”
(Econ, 4/11/09, p.84)
2010 Feb 26, In Liberia
religious clashes in the northern county of Lofa killed four people.
The violence erupted in the town of Vionjama after the body of a
child "with body parts extracted" was found near a mosque. Witnesses
said rioters had burned down the Catholic, Baptist and Episcopal
churches in the area.
(Reuters, 2/27/10)
2010 May 28, Konstantin
Yaroshenko (41) was arrested in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, by US
agents for alleged drug smuggling, and then extradited to New York.
On July 21 the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the US of
"kidnapping" the Russian pilot.
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 30, Liberia's
government, still recovering from a 14-year civil war and previous
decades of poverty and illiteracy, said it will now require all
children to get birth certificates, a document most of them lack.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Aug 5, In the Netherlands
Naomi Campbell testified before a war crimes tribunal that she had
received some "dirty-looking stones" after a 1997 dinner party with
former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor. Still, the supermodel said she
didn't know if the stones were actually diamonds or if the gift came
from Taylor himself. Campbell said that she gave the stones to a
friend, Jeremy Ratcliffe, who was the director of the Nelson Mandela
Children's Fund, intending he use them for charity.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Sep 22, Liberia's election
commission said that Prince Johnson's National Union for Democratic
Progress met the requirements for next year's poll. Johnson is best
known for the torture and slaying of ousted president Samuel K. Doe
in 1990. A videotape of the event shows Johnson drinking beer as he
ordered his men to cut off Doe's ears.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Dec, Transparency Int’l.,
a Berlin-based lobby group, ranked Liberia as the most corrupt
country in the world.
(Econ, 9/10/11, p.54)
2010 Liberia under Pres. Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf won a colossal write-down of debts under the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries program.
(Econ 7/1/17, p.52)
2010 The US provided Liberia
almost $230 million in aid this year.
(Eon, 11/19/11, p.51)
2011 Mar 11, In the Netherlands
the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor,
once among West Africa's most powerful figures, ended with judges
expected to take months to reach a verdict on whether he can be
linked to murders and amputations during Sierra Leone's civil war.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Apr 19, Forty one Ivorians
were arrested by United Nations forces as they attempted to cross
the border into Liberia with cars, guns and ammunition shortly after
the capture of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2011 Aug 23, Liberia's first
constitutional referendum in 25 years was marred by error after the
National Election Commission said it had distributed defective
ballot papers. It failed to achieve the required two-thirds of votes
cast in a poll in which only 34 percent of registered voters showed
up and many ballots were invalid.
(AP, 8/23/11)(AFP, 9/1/11)
2011 Sep 10, Leaders of Ivory
Coast and Liberia were joined by counterparts from West Africa for
talks on security along the border between their two countries after
a bloody post-poll crisis. Presidents Alassane Ouattara and Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf were joined by Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso,
Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, John Atta Mills of Ghana and Nigerian
summit host Goodluck Jonathan, under the aegis of regional bloc
ECOWAS.
(AFP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 13, In Liberia 11
people were killed after an ambulance crashed into a crowd in
Vonzula, who had been waiting all day to see a visiting presidential
candidate.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 17, Ivory Coast's
defense minister said armed men from Liberia have killed at least 15
people in attacks on villages along the border over the last two
days.
(AP, 9/17/11)
2011 Oct 7, The Nobel Peace
Prize was awarded to Tawakkul Karman (32) of Yemen. She shared the
prize with Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and Liberian
peace activist Leymah Gbowee, as the Nobel committee gave a nod to
the Arab Spring.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 11, Liberia held
presidential elections. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (72), recent
Nobel Peace Prize winner, faced 15 opposition candidates including
soccer star George Weah. Sirleaf took 44% of the vote, with Tubman,
a former diplomat, at 31%. Turnout was 71.4%. With 31% voting for
her challenger, Sirleaf would need No. 3 Prince Johnson's
endorsement to win the upcoming runoff.
(AP, 10/11/11)(AP, 10/13/11)(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 15, A group of
Liberian opposition parties said they are pulling out after a recent
presidential poll and threatened to refuse the results over
allegations that the electoral commission are skewing the outcome in
favor of the president.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 17, The offices of a
Liberian radio station were set ablaze, in the wake of an arson
attack on the ruling party headquarters and opposition discontent
over poll results.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 18, Liberian
ex-warlord Prince Johnson, who came third in the presidential polls,
announced he would back Nobel peace laureate and incumbent president
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in a run-off election.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 19, Liberia’s
ex-warlord Prince Johnson, who came third in presidential polls,
demanded 30 percent of Liberia's government from incumbent Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf in exchange for his valuable support. Johnson
reiterated concerns that a win by the Congress for Democratic
Change's Tubman would lead to the implementation of a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission report, which could see him tried for war
crimes.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Nov 4, Liberia’s Winston
Tubman said he and his running mate, soccer star George Weah, will
boycott the Nov 8 runoff because they are not convinced the process
will be fair.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Liberia violence
broke out at the headquarters of the main opposition party and at
least one person was killed, less than 24 hours before a
presidential runoff vote that is being viewed as a test of the
country's fragile peace after a devastating civil war.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Liberia Africa's
first elected female president headed toward easy re-election with
her sole opponent boycotting a runoff, and ignoring entreaties from
the United States and the UN to participate in what observers said
was a free and fair vote. Sirleaf won 90.8% of votes cast and Tubman
9%. Only 37.4% of 1.8 million registered voters cast their ballots.
(AP, 11/8/11)(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Liberia's
opposition leader Winston Tubman said he was willing to work with
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf after disputed polls left the
war-scarred nation more divided than ever.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Dec 8, Liberia and Senegal
pledged to reform their laws so that women can confer citizenship on
their children. They were among at least 30 countries that let only
fathers pass their citizenship to children from marriages with a
foreigner.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2012 Jan 28, Liberia arrested
some 70 people near its southeastern border with Ivory Coast for
their alleged involvement in plans to destabilize the neighboring
country.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Feb 6, A US immigration
judge ordered George Boley (62), the former leader of the Liberian
Peace Council, out of the country in upstate New York, the
first-ever removal under a 2008 law to combat the use of child
soldiers. The judge cited "credible reports" that Boley authorized
the executions of seven of his soldiers on November 14, 1995.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Apr 19, Liberian President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf issued a decree exempting schools, hospitals,
the national broadcaster and power company from paying customs
duties on fuel.
(AFP, 4/19/12)
2012 Apr 26, In the Netherlands
an international court convicted former Liberian President Charles
Taylor (64) of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against
humanity for supporting notoriously brutal rebels in neighboring
Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds." Taylor became the first
head of state convicted by an international court since the
post-World War II Nuremberg military tribunal.
(AP, 4/26/12)
2012 May 30, In the Netherlands
international judges sentenced former Liberian President Charles
Taylor to 50 years in prison for atrocities in Sierra Leone during
the 1990s.
(AP, 5/30/12)(SFC, 5/31/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 6, Human Rights Watch
said armed groups in Liberia, who supported Ivory Coast's former
president, have killed at least 40 civilians in cross-border raids
into Ivory Coast since July and are recruiting children as young as
14 into their ranks.
(AP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 21, A court in eastern
Liberia ruled to extradite 41 Ivorians, arrested April 19, 2011, to
their home country to stand trial for their role in Ivory Coast's
2011 post-election conflict.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 23, Liberia extradited
41 Ivory Coast nationals for their role in last year's bloody
post-electoral violence in the neighboring West African nation.
(AFP, 6/23/12)
2012 Jul 23, Liberia's
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf signed the Table Mountain
Declaration, a pledge drawn up by global media rights bodies to
boost press freedom and stop the criminal prosecution of
journalists. the declaration was adopted by the World Association of
Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in Cape Town, South Africa
in 2007. She became only the second African leader after Niger
President Mahamadou Issoufou, to sign the declaration.
(AFP, 7/23/12)
2012 Jul 25, Liberia's
government welcomed the lifting of UN sanctions against 17 Liberians
who were part of former warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor's
regime.
(AFP, 7/25/12)
2012 Aug 21, Liberian President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf suspended 46 government officials, including
her son, for failing to declare their assets.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Sep 4, Global Witness said
international logging companies are skirting the rules and have used
a loophole in Liberian law which has granted them access to as much
as one-quarter of Liberia's landmass. Private use permits, now
covering 40 percent of the country's forests, were being used by
major companies to cut trees on their own property.
(AP, 9/4/12)
2012 Oct 3, In Liberia more
than 60 inmates broke out of a maximum security prison in the
southeastern city of Zwedru.
(AP, 10/4/12)
2012 Nov 10, In Liberia a few
hundred people representing the Christian and Muslim faiths and
civil society organizations gathered in Monrovia to launch a
campaign to press the government to ban same-sex marriage.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2013 Feb 11, In Liberia a plane
carrying senior officials from Guinea crashed near Liberia's largest
airport, killing 11 people including Guinea's army chief of staff
Gen. Souleymane Kelefa Diallo.
(AP, 2/11/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Mar 26, UN officials in
Liberia said they've temporarily halted the repatriation of tens of
thousands of refugees from Ivory Coast because of continued unrest
near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Apr 1, In Liberia Moses
Blah, the man who served as president for two months after Charles
Taylor stepped down, died in Monrovia.
(AP, 4/2/13)
2013 Apr 15, Liberian President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Francis Korkpor (61) will be the
country's new chief justice.
(AP, 4/15/13)
2013 Apr 24, In Liberia at
least three were killed and more than 10 feared trapped under the
rubble of a building that was gutted by fire and came down in the
Waterside commercial district of Monrovia.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 May 10, Newspapers in
Liberia printed black front pages after a government official was
accused of threatening journalists. The director of the presidential
security service reportedly told a journalist: "Be careful, because
you have your pens and we have our guns."
(AP, 5/10/13)
2013 Aug 21, In Liberia Rodney
Sieh, managing director of Frontpage Africa, was taken into custody
following a Supreme Court ruling that the paper should pay US $1.6
million (1.2 million euros) for libelling former agriculture
minister J. Chris Toe. The court ordered that the paper be closed
down until the damages are paid in full. On Nov 20 Sieh said all
charges against him have been dropped.
(AFP, 8/27/13)(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Sep 26, Charles Taylor
lost his appeal against a war crimes conviction at The Hague. Judges
confirmed a 50-year jail term against the former Liberian president
for encouraging rebels in Sierra Leone to mutilate, rape and murder
victims in a decade-long civil war.
(Reuters, 9/26/13)
2013 Oct 10, Britain confirmed
that Liberia's former president and warlord Charles Taylor is to
serve out his 50-year prison sentence for war crimes in a British
jail.
(AFP, 10/10/13)
2013 Nov 11, Liberian officials
said their Drug Enforcement Agency has arrested the head of the
presidential motorcade over the weekend for allegedly using an
official vehicle to smuggle 297 kg (654 pounds) of marijuana into
Liberia from neighboring Sierra Leone.
(AP, 11/11/13)
2013 In Liberia Katie Meyler,
an American woman, founded the More Than Me Academy at West Point in
Monrovia. It was the first of 18 schools that the US charity opened
in the the country. The charity founded the school specifically to
empower and educate local girls to save them from prostitution and
sexual coercion. In 2018 the US investigative site ProPublica
described how girls were systematically raped at the West Point
school.
(AFP, 10/16/18)(AP, 4/21/19)
2013 - 2015 The Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone killed more than 11,000 people.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.13)
2014 Mar 24, Guinea announced
that samples taken from three suspected cases of Ebola, which led to
two deaths in Conakry, had tested negative for the virus. Health
workers said the outbreak from the Ebola virus, which has killed at
least 59 people in Guinea, may have spread to Liberia.
(AFP, 3/24/14)(SFC, 3/25/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 3, Liberia said it was
dealing with its first suspected Ebola case thought to be
unconnected to the epidemic raging in Guinea and to have originated
separately within its borders. The fruit bat, thought to be the host
of the highly contagious Ebola virus, is a delicacy in the region
straddling Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and experts suspect
huntsmen may be the source of the outbreak.
(AFP, 4/3/14)
2014 Apr 4, Mali, Liberia and
Sierra Leone geared up to tackle killer haemorrhagic fevers
including Ebola, which has claimed 86 lives in Guinea. Mali claimed
3 suspect cases; Liberia claimed 14; Sierra Leone claimed several
more.
(AFP, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 8, WHO officials said
more than 100 people have died in an outbreak of Ebola in West
Africa, with as many as 175 people infected. This included 151
suspected and confirmed cases of the disease in guinea, where 98
people have died, and 10 deaths in Liberia.
(AP, 4/8/14)
2014 Apr 23, The WHO said 147
people have died from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including
136 in Guinea and 11 in Liberia.
(SFC, 4/24/14, p.A2)
2014 May 15, Heavily armed
fighters, believed to have come from Liberia, seized a border
village in western Ivory Coast. They crossed the Cavally
River, which forms the boundary between the two West African
neighbors, and attacked the village of Fetai.
(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 Jun 17, A Liberian a
health official said 7 people believed to have the Ebola virus have
died in recent days in the first deaths reported in Monrovia since
the outbreak began. 16 people were now believed to have died from
the virus in the West African country.
(AP, 6/17/14)
2014 Jun 17, A Liberian judge
sentenced 13 men to life in prison for "mercenary activity" in
neighboring Ivory Coast in 2011-2012.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 18, The World Health
Organization said an Ebola outbreak continues to spread in Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the death toll in the outbreak has
risen to more than 330.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 23, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said that the latest figures show 567 cases of
Ebola with 350 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The virus
has no cure and causes internal bleeding and organ failure,
spreading through contact with infected people.
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jul 4, Liberia's security
forces fired shots in the air to break up a protest at an
ArcelorMittal SA iron ore plant northeast of Monrovia.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 8, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said fifty new cases of Ebola and 25 deaths have
been reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since July 3.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 11, The World Health
Organization (WHO) reported 44 new cases of Ebola including 21
deaths. 539 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone have
been attributed to the outbreak.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 22, In Sierra Leone
Sheik Umar Khan (39), the head doctor fighting the deadly tropical
virus Ebola, was reported to have caught the disease. Across Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone, 632 people have died from the illness
according to the latest WHO report.
(Reuters, 7/23/14)
2014 Jul 25, The World Health
Organization the death toll in West Africa's Ebola outbreak has
risen to 660, with the number of cases surpassing 1,000. In Guinea
fatalities reached 314, with 127 in Liberia and 219 in Sierra Leone.
(AFP, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 26, Dr. Samuel
Brisbane, a top Liberian health official, died. He had fallen ill
while treating Ebola patients at the country's largest hospital, the
John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia.
(AP, 7/28/14)
2014 Jul 27, Liberia’s Pres.
Ellen Sirleaf Johnson closed all but three border crossings,
restricted public gatherings and quarantined communities heavily
affected by the Ebola outbreak.
(SFC, 7/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 31, The World Health
Organization said the deaths of 57 more people from Ebola in west
Africa have pushed the overall fatality toll from the epidemic to
729, including 339 in Guinea, 156 in Liberia and 233 in Sierra
Leone.
(AFP, 7/31/14)
2014 Aug 1, The leaders of
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone agreed to a $100 million emergency
action plan to beef the response to Ebola.
(AFP, 8/2/14)
2014 Aug 4, The World Bank said
that it would provide up to $200 million to Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone to help the west African nations contain the deadly
outbreak.
(AP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 5, Liberian officials
said relatives of Ebola victims have defied government orders and
dumped infected bodies in the streets as West African governments
struggled to enforce tough measures to curb an outbreak of the virus
that has killed 887 people.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 6, Liberian Pres.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced emergency measures that will, for 90
days, allow her government to curtail civil rights by imposing
quarantines on badly affected communities to contain the Ebola
epidemic.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Sierra Leone
police and soldiers blockaded rural areas hit by the deadly Ebola
virus, after neighboring Liberia declared a state of emergency to
tackle the worst-ever outbreak of the disease, which has killed 932
people.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 9, Guinea announced
the closure of its borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia in a bid to
halt the spread of Ebola.
(Reuters, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 12, In Liberia Fatu
Sherrif (12) died overnight of Ebola in the village of Ballajah. She
had been shunned and locked away with her mother's body for a week
after most residents fled to the forest to escape an outbreak of the
virus. In Liberia alone, some 599 cases have been diagnosed with 323
deaths.
(AFP, 8/12/14)
2014 Aug 14, The UN health
agency said the death toll from the worst outbreak of Ebola in four
decades had now climbed to 1,069 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and
Sierra Leone. The WHO said the scale of the Ebola epidemic has been
vastly underestimated and that "extraordinary measures" were needed
to contain the killer disease.
(AFP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 16, In Liberia
residents in Monrovia’s in the West Point slum raided a quarantine
center for suspected Ebola patients and took items including bloody
sheets and mattresses. Up to 30 patients were staying at the center
and many of them fled at the time of the raid.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 19, Liberia’s health
ministry said all the patients who fled a medical center on Aug 16
are now being screened at a hospital in Monrovia and those who
tested positive are being treated. Officials also said three health
workers being treated with the last known doses of ZMapp were
showing signs of recovery.
(AP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 20, Liberian security
forces sealed off the West Point area, a seaside slum in Monrovia,
in the latest effort to stop the spread of Ebola, setting off
protests by angry residents.
(AP, 8/20/14)
2014 Aug 22, Ivory Coast closed
its land borders with Ebola-affected West African neighbors Guinea
and Liberia in an attempt to prevent the world's deadliest outbreak
of the virus from spreading onto its territory.
(Reuters, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 24, In Liberia Dr.
Abraham Borbo, one of three Africans to receive the experimental
Ebola drug ZMapp, died. Only six people in the world are known to
have received ZMapp. The small supply is now said to be exhausted
and it is expected to be months before more can be produced by its
US maker.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 30, Liberia’s
government lifted quarantine measures in the seaside district of
West Point in Monrovia, which had been designed to contain the
spread of the Ebola virus. Officials announced plans to build five
new Ebola treatment centers each with capacity for 100 beds.
(Reuters, 8/31/14)
2014 Sep 1, Liberia's president
ordered most civil servants to stay home another month in an effort
to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. Scores of healthcare
workers at the country’s main hospital in Monrovia went on strike
over unpaid wages.
(AP, 9/1/14)(AFP, 9/1/14)
2014 Sep 13, Liberian President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf sacked 10 senior officials because they failed
to heed a warning to return from overseas travel to help the
government's fight against an Ebola epidemic.
(Reuters, 9/14/14)
2014 Sep 16, The United States
announced it will send 3,000 troops to help tackle the Ebola
outbreak as part of a ramped-up plan, including a major deployment
in Liberia, the country where the epidemic is spiraling fastest out
of control.
(Reuters, 9/16/14)
2014 Sep 21, West Africa
intensified its response to the deadly Ebola epidemic, with Sierra
Leone uncovering scores of dead bodies during a 72-hour shutdown and
Liberia announcing 1,000 hospital beds.
(AFP, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 27, Liberia's chief
medical officer, Bernice Dahn, placed herself under quarantine for
21 days after her office assistant died of Ebola.
(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Oct 6, Liberia's Justice
Minister Christiana Tah stepped down, saying President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf blocked her investigation into fraud allegations against the
country's National Security Agency (NSA), which is headed by the
president's son.
(Reuters, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 10, Liberian lawmakers
rejected a proposal the grant Pres. Sirleaf the power to further
restrict movement and public gatherings and to confiscate property
in the fight against Ebola as the WHO raised the death toll to 4,033
confirmed deaths, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
(SFC, 10/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 14, The Liberian
government threatened to fire doctors and nurses who are on strike
demanding danger money to care for Ebola patients in the country
worst hit by the epidemic.
(AFP, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 20, China was reported
to have donated $6 million to help stave off food shortages in
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries worst affected by
the Ebola virus.
(AP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 23, Liberia’s state
radio said dozens of people quarantined for Ebola monitoring in
Jenewonda were threatening to break out of isolation because they
have no food.
(AP, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 24, China's president
pledged to provide $81 million in aid to help fight Ebola in the
three West African countries at the heart of the crisis.
(AP, 10/24/14)
2014 Oct 30, The World Bank
said it was immediately providing $100 million to support the
deployment of more health workers to Ebola-stricken West Africa.
(AFP, 10/30/14)
2014 Nov 8, The African Union,
African Development Bank and regional business leaders meeting in in
Ethiopia announced a crisis fund to help areas hit by the Ebola
outbreak.
(AFP, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 13, Liberia's Pres.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she is lifting a state of emergency
imposed to control an Ebola outbreak that has ravaged the country
but added that the move does not mean the outbreak is over.
(AP, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 14, Senegal partially
reopened air and sea borders with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,
countries worst hit by the Ebola virus.
(AFP, 11/15/14)
2014 Nov 15, In Liberia about
160 Chinese health workers arrived, where they are due to staff a
new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign
interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese personnel.
(Reuters, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 25, Liberia’s
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf toured a new Chinese-built 100-bed
treatment center for Ebola just outside Monrovia. It was exptected
to begin receiving patientws nexdt week.
(AP, 11/25/14)
2014 Dec 20, In Liberia health
workers manned polling stations across the country as voters cast
their ballots in a twice-delayed Senate election.
(AP, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, The World Health
Organization said the death toll from Ebola in Guinea (1,550),
Liberia (3,346) and Sierra Leone (2,477), the three worst-affected
countries in West Africa, has risen to 7,373 among 19,031 cases
known to date there.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 23, In Liberia a
fourth member of the UN mission was hospitalized after testing
positive for the virus. Liberia topped the number of Ebola deaths in
the world with 3,376 fatalities, but has seen a clear decrease of
new transmissions in the past month.
(AFP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 29, Liberian health
officials reported dozens of new Ebola cases near the border
with Sierra Leone, marking a setback amid recent improvements.
Forty-nine cases were reported in in western Grand Cape Mount County
between December 1 and 25.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2015 Jan 2, The World Health
Organization said deaths last year from Ebola had reached 7,989 with
2,827 from Sierra Leone, 3,423 from Liberia and 1,739 from Guinea.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 23, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have
recorded falling numbers of new Ebola cases for four successive
weeks.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 24, The United Nations
said Liberia was dealing with just five remaining cases of Ebola, in
the clearest sign yet that the country is nearing the end of the
outbreak.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 26, Liberia said that
there are currently only five confirmed cases of Ebola in the entire
country — a dramatic turnaround in the West African nation where the
virus has taken its deadliest toll.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Liberia
large-scale human testing of two potential Ebola vaccines got under
way in Monrovia, part of a global effort to prevent a repeat of the
epidemic that has now claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Africa.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 11, Liberia's Pres.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf vowed that the country would get to zero Ebola
cases soon as the US military announced it will be withdrawing most
of its troops who have spent the last several months helping to
battle the disease.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 20, Liberia's Pres.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the end of a midnight to 6 am curfew
that was imposed to help stem the spread of the Ebola epidemic.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Liberia the
United States staged a military ceremony to end its five-month Ebola
mission, with the west African nation in recovery from the
worst-ever outbreak of the virus.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Mar 5, Liberia discharged
its last confirmed Ebola patient, as it reported for the first time
in nine months it had gone a full week without any new infections.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 12, The World Health
Organization (WHO) estimated that the Ebola outbreak has killed over
10,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, Liberian officials
said a patient has tested positive for Ebola in Monrovia, deflating
hopes that the nation had beaten the disease.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 27, In Liberia woman,
who last week became the country's first Ebola patient in more than
a month, died. Two new suspected cases were also reported
identified.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Apr 17, Guinea, Liberia,
and Sierra Leone, the three West African countries hit hardest by
the Ebola epidemic, called for an $8 billion "Marshall Plan" to help
rebuild their economies and boost prevention efforts at a meeting
with heads of the World Bank, IMF, and UN. World Bank President Jim
Yong Kim announced a new $650 million in funds for the three
countries, in addition to $1 billion committed last year to fight
the outbreak.
(AFP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 18, In Liberia 700
Ebola workers took to the streets of Monrovia for a second day to
demand promised hazard pay.
(AFP, 4/18/15)
2015 May 9, The UN World Health
Organization (WHO) declared Liberia Ebola-free, hailing the
"monumental" achievement in the west African country where the virus
has killed more than 4,700 people.
(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 26, In southeastern
Liberia protesters with machetes broke into Golden Veroleum Liberia
(GVL) palm oil plantation in Sinoe County, looting equipment and
workers' property. Police later charged 23 people over riots.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 30, Liberian
authorities quarantined an area where the corpse of a boy (14) was
found with Ebola. The WHO had declared Liberia Ebola free on May 9.
(SFC, 7/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 1, Liberian
authorities confirmed a 2nd case of Ebola in the same town where the
disease was recently detected in the corpse of a teenager.
(SFC, 7/2/15, p.A5)
2015 Jul 12, In Liberia a
second person died from Ebola in the latest resurgence of the deadly
disease in the West African nation. The woman in her early 20s was
linked to the 17-year-old boy who died on June 28.
(AP, 7/15/15)
2015 Aug 4, Liberian state
radio said 14 men from Sierra Leone illegally mining for gold fell
victim to a landslide last week. They were trapped under rubble and
were presumed dead.
(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Sep 3, The WHO announced
that Liberia, recently ravaged by Ebola, was free of the virus, 42
days after the last confirmed case passed a second negative test.
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 30, In northern
Liberia authorities imposed a curfew in Ganta town after violent
protests following a wave of suspected ritual killings.
(Reuters, 10/1/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Liberia a new
case of Ebola emerged in a setback for the country declared free of
the disease on September 3.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 23, In Liberia a
teenager (15) died in the first such death since the country was
officially declared free of the virus in September. His parents had
also tested positive for the virus and were under observation in the
capital Monrovia.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 In Liberia George Werner
was made education minister. He soon removed 1,892 dead or retired
teachers from the government’s payroll. In September, 2016, he
launched Partnership Schools for Liberia, a pilot program based on
charter schools in America and academies in England.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.42)
2016 Jan 14, The World Health
organization (WHO) said the two-year Ebola epidemic that killed
11,000 and triggered a global health alert was over, with Liberia
the last country given the all-clear.
(AFP, 1/14/16)
2016 Feb 29, Liberian police
fired teargas and threw stones at a crowd gathered near a court in
Monrovia to demand the release of a political activist charged with
sedition.
(Reuters, 2/29/16)
2016 Mar 31, In Liberia a woman
(30) died of Ebola, months after the West African nation was
declared free of the virus. Officials later said there were strong
indications the woman came from Guinea when the border was closed.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)(AP, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 3, Liberian health
officials said a second case of Ebola has been confirmed months
after the country had been declared free from transmissions. The son
(5) of a woman who died March 31 from Ebola was taken to a treatment
center in Monrovia.
(AP, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 8, Liberia said it
plans to outsource the oversight of its entire primary education
sector to USD-based Bridge International Academies, a for-profit
company linked to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
(SFC, 4/9/16, p.A4)
2016 May 25, Liberia's
Information Minister Eugene Nagbe said the Chairman of the ruling
Unity Party Varney Sherman, parliamentary speaker Alex Tyler former
junior mining minister Ernest Jones all face charges, along with
London-based Sable Mining in a massive corruption scandal.
(AFP, 5/25/16)
2016 Jun 9, Liberia said it was
free of Ebola, meaning there are now no known cases in west Africa
of the tropical virus that has left more than 11,300 people dead in
the region since late 2013.
(AFP, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 27, First Lady
Michelle Obama landed in Liberia with her daughters and mother for
an overseas trip promoting education for girls. The trip includes
stops in Morocco and Spain.
(SFC, 6/28/16, p.A2)
2017 Apr 28, United Nations
officials said at least 11 people have died from a mysterious
illness in Liberia, and tests have been negative for the Ebola
virus. Those who fell sick this week all had attended a relative's
funeral.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Oct 10, Liberia held
presidential elections. 2.18 million registered voters chose from a
crowded field of 20 presidential candidates. Voters will also elect
73 seats in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives.
(AFP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 12, Liberia’s National
Election Commission data showed former international soccer star
George Weah ahead in 11 of 15 counties. Fewer than 30 percent of the
votes have been counted in the majority of counties.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Nov 6, Liberia's Supreme
Court halted the presidential election runoff, which had been
scheduled for Nov. 7, until the National Elections Commission
investigates allegations of irregularities and fraud in the first
round.
(AP, 11/6/17)
2017 Dec 19, In South Africa
convicted Dutch arms dealer Guus Kouwenhoven (75), who supplied arms
that fuelled Liberia's bloody civil war, was released by a South
African court on bail of $78,000.
(AP, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 26, Liberia held
elections in a delayed run-off vote for the country's presidency.
Former int’l footballer George Weah (51) and Vice-President Joseph
Boakai joined voters in casting their ballots as they went
head-to-head for the top office. George Weah easily beat Vice
President Joseph Boakai gaining 61.5 percent of the ballot against
38.5 percent for his rival and winning in 14 of Liberia's 15
counties.
(AFP, 12/26/17)(AFP, 12/29/17)
2017 Liberia stood as the
world’s fourth poorest country.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.42)
2017 Liberia’s population was
about 4 million.
(Econ 7/1/17, p.51)
2018 Jan 13, Liberia’s ruling
Unity Party expelled the country's outgoing president, Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf, who is accused by party leaders of meddling in last year's
presidential elections in which its candidate suffered a bruising
defeat.
(Reuters, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 16, Liberia’s
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf rejected her expulsion from the
governing party as illegal, saying she will appeal the decision.
(AP, 1/16/18)
2018 Jan 22, In Liberia former
football star George Weah was sworn in as president.
(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Sep 18, Liberia's
Information Minister Eugene Nagbe said several shipments of freshly
printed Liberian dollars ordered from abroad by the central bank
have been unaccounted for since they passed through the country's
main ports in November 2017 and August this year. The government
sought US help in investigating the whereabouts of the cash,
equivalent to nearly five percent of Liberia's GDP.
(Reuters, 9/21/18)
2018 Oct, CEO Katie Meyler (37)
started her leave of absence after ProPublica reported that former
staffer Macintosh Johnson had sexually assaulted students at a More
Than Me branch in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. Meyler resigned
six months later. Johnson had AIDS and died in jail in 2016 while
awaiting trial.
(AP, 4/21/19)
2018 Dec 24, Journalists in
Liberia sounded the alarm on press freedom after two ministers
mounted an attack on a paper that ran an article about alleged
top-level corruption.
(AFP, 12/24/18)
2019 Feb 9, In northeastern
Liberia a gold mine collapsed. Five bodies were recovered on Feb. 13
and 40 people remained trapped.
(AP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 28, In Liberia two
senior figures at the Central Bank, one of whom is the son of former
president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, were arrested following a probe
into reports of missing banknotes.
(AFP, 3/1/19)
2019 Mar 1, Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu met with Liberian Pres. George Weah in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has made strengthening ties with Africa a foreign policy
priority.
(AFP, 3/1/19)
2019 Apr 29, Alfred Brownell
was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for exposing alleged
abuse by palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia and helping to
prevent it from converting about 20 square miles (about 50 square
km) of forest that is home to elephants, pygmy hippopotamuses and
chimpanzees. He was forced to flee Liberia in 2016 after the
government threatened to arrest him for his activism.
(AP, 4/29/19)
2019 Jun 7, Thousands of
Liberians took to the streets of Monrovia to protest against the
corruption and economic decline that many blame on their once hugely
popular president, former football star George Weah.
(Reuters, 6/7/19)
2019 Sep 18, In Liberia a fire
overnight at a Quranic school outside Monrovia killed at least 27
people. Many of the dead were thought to be children.
(AP, 9/18/19)
2019 Dec 6, A multi-million
pound prosecution by Scotland Yard's war crimes unit against Agnes
Reeves-Taylor (54), a former wife of Liberian warlord Charles
Taylor, collapsed after her lawyers won a bid to have the case
discontinued.
(The Telegraph, 12/6/19)
2020 Mar 6, Liberia suspended
the licenses of all fuel importers, including France's Total, to
conduct performance reviews after some of the companies overdrew
from reserves in state-run facilities, leading to gasoline
shortages.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 12, A Finnish court
jailed in a custody hearing Gibril Ealoghima Massaquoi (50), a
Sierra Leone man suspected of committing serious war crimes and
crimes against humanity from 1999 through 2003 during Liberia's
bloody second civil war. Massaquoi has lived in Finland for more
than 10 years.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 16, Benin, Liberia,
Somalia and Tanzania became the latest African countries to report
cases of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Apr 11, A coronavirus
lockdown in Liberia's capital Monrovia got off to a chaotic start,
as some police officers used truncheons against residents who had
ventured out into the streets to buy food and withdraw money.
Liberia has so far confirmed at least 48 cases of the coronavirus,
including five deaths.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Pennsylvania
Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu, a former lietenant for Liberian warlord
Charles Taylor, died in Philadelphia of COVID-19 complications.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A3)
