For much of this summer, the topics of environmental crisis and climate change have exploded into the news cycles of the developed world with the same frightening alacrity as the floods and wildfires forcing the headlines. Storms and rain at the weekend have broken a historic heat wave in the…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The global NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has issued a statement saying it has been unable to confirm allegations that its logistics staff members working in Africa were commonly engaged in sexual misconduct, but takes the allegations seriously. The response Thursday followed a BBC report featuring interviews with former employees…
The European Union has signed a new Economic Cooperation Agreement with Liberia, and provided an initial €27 million in funding for the West African nation’s budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. The commitment follows President George Weah’s trip to attend the annual European Development Days (EDD) Summit, held this week…
Mohammed Jabbateh, a Liberian living in the United States, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after a guilty verdict in October on charges of immigration fraud and perjury. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) identified Jabbateh as a brutal warlord during the 1992-1995 years of Liberia’s first civil…
The UK-based Global Witness NGO has called on the United States to investigate oil major Exxon for its role in a 2013 oil block deal in Liberia, one it says implicates Exxon in corrupt business dealings. A Global Witness investigation released this week charges that Exxon knew that the oil block,…
The United States said Tuesday it is ending its long-standing protected status policy for Liberians, one that allowed them to continue living in the U.S. under one of two programs dating back to 1991 and the civil war. “I have been informed that conditions in Liberia have improved,” said President…
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe has arrived in Côte d’Ivoire, where he was greeted by President Alassane Ouattara as both head for the Africa CEO Forum to be held Monday in Tuesday in Abidjan. Mnangagwa will present his plans for economic recovery, and with former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo will participate…
As Nigeria works to get a handle on its own Lassa fever outbreak, the World Health Organization has announced a new case affecting Guinea and the Liberian communities where the deceased patient traveled. The patient from Guinea died in January, leaving public health investigators to follow up on more than…
Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been named recipient of the 2017 Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, the Ibrahim Foundation announced Monday. The prize is a USD$5 million award paid over 10 years with $200,000 annually for life thereafter, with an optional and additional $200,000 per…
The Unity Party (UP) in Liberia has expelled outgoing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from party membership, following allegations during the 2017 election cycle that she worked against Joseph Boakai, her own party’s candidate and vice president. Johnson Sirleaf was one of four people removed from party membership, according to a…
Former football star George Weah has become Liberia’s new president, while challenger Joseph Boakai has appealed for peace in public remarks that followed his concession phone call to the winner. Boakai declared that not a drop of blood should be spilled in his name, and said he loved Liberia more…
Election officials in Liberia say voting in Tuesday’s presidential runoff was for the most part a smooth process, although there will be a delay waiting for a final tally. The vote will determine whether former football star George Weah, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) presidential candidate, or ruling Unity…
Liberia’s National Election Commission (NEC) will set a date for the delayed presidential runoff election, following the Supreme Court decision Thursday to allow the election to move forward. The runoff election between former football star George Weah, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) presidential candidate, and ruling Unity Party candidate…
The presidential runoff election planned for Tuesday in Liberia is postponed until further notice, following a Supreme Court decision that directs the National Election Commission to investigate complaints originally filed by Liberty Party candidate Charles Brumskine. The court’s decision at the eleventh hour follows accusations made in the wake of…
As if the Ebola crisis in West Africa wasn’t tragic enough, investigators at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) now say at least USD$6 million was lost to fraud and corruption during an emergency that lasted from 2014 through 2016. As much as $2.1 million…