Claim: -The Conflict- After the 1989 coup in which Charles Taylor assumed the presidency, Liberia spiralled into two successive waves of armed violence, the second of which killed over two hundred thousand people and displaced nearly two million people. The intense four-year conflict known as Liberia’s Second Civil War began in April 1999….
Full Story: The Council on Foreign Relations website published a report on Liberia Case Study with a claim that After the 1989 coup in which Charles Taylor assumed the presidency, Liberia spiralled into two successive waves of armed violence, the second of which killed over two hundred thousand people and displaced nearly two million people.
Liberia is Africa’s oldest republic, but it became known in the 1990s for its long-running, ruinous civil war and its role in a rebellion in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Though Liberia experience14 years, between 1989 and 2003, a war that ravaged the nation leading to the death of many citizens, but the write-up by the council on foreign relations is misleading.
The claim was shared on Twitter by Tennen Dalieh, a Ph.D. student-Dublin City University. The post received five comments, three retweets, and six reactions.#
Verification: The Stage Media contacted Tennen who said the civil conflict as you know started in 1989. This followed several years of fighting and many failed interventions. It is argued there were two phases of the conflict: 1989-1997 and 1999 to 2003. This is somewhat problematic because the election of Charles Taylor did not end hostilities- may be at the central governance level.
She said, “Within context, the war was on the back of a toppled oligarchy (coup), followed by widespread human rights violations, targeted ethnic-tribal killings.”
Also, Dr. Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei, Liberian researcher, policy analyst and columnist said Liberia did not have a coup in 1989 and the government was not overthrown in 1989; and Taylor did not become president until 1997 when he won an election. This analysis is fraught with factual inaccuracies
Verdict: Misleading
