Following the devastation of the Second World War, Liberia became one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a leading example of Africa’s development. However, an ambitious army officer overthrew the country’s leadership in a coup. Transforming the nation into an autocratic dictatorship, his brutal tyranny devastated Liberian society. A similarly ruthless opponent challenged the new dictator. The ensuing civil war wrought unspeakable horrors upon the Liberian people and eroded the country’s once-celebrated prosperity. The First Liberian Civil War is one of the most devastating conflicts in recent memory.
Liberia: From Colony to Statehood
The nation of Liberia occupies a small pocket on Africa’s west coast. Numerous small tribes and ethnic groups inhabited and contested the land for centuries. During the early 19th century, a growing consensus in the United States of America believed that freed slaves would face better opportunities for freedom back in Africa than they would in the US.
Founded in 1817, the American Colonization Society (ACS) aimed to resettle freed slaves in Africa. The society quickly gained significant support—including that of presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison—and began searching for a suitable location for resettlement. This search would eventually lead to Liberia.
The first settlement of the ACS was established in 1822. Two years later, the settlement was named Monrovia in honor of US President James Monroe. Other settlements were established within the vicinity of Monrovia, which continued to grow and develop over the next decade.
By 1838, the combined populations of these settlements had swelled to approximately 20,000. A decision was made by the settlements’ inhabitants to unify into one combined territory.
Liberia continued to receive support from the United States, both economically and diplomatically. However, the colony’s territory was increasingly threatened by Great Britain and France, who continued to conquer swaths of Africa. Liberia declared independence from the US in 1847 to ensure its sovereignty. Great Britain recognized Liberia’s independence in 1848, followed by France in 1852, thus guaranteeing the integrity of Liberia’s territory.
Instability and Ritual Killings
Following its ascension to statehood, Liberia prospered, especially following the Second World War, receiving considerable investment from the United States. In fact, during the 1950s, Liberia was the world’s second fastest-growing economy.
While Liberia’s economy flourished, cracks began to develop within the country’s politics. Throughout Liberia’s history, its upper class, and thus its politics, was dominated by Americo-Liberians despite only constituting 5% of the total population. The other 95% of Liberia’s population consisted of roughly 17 other ethnic groups who lived in poor rural communities.
In 1971, William Tolbert was elected President of Liberia, marking over 120 years of uninterrupted Americo-Liberian leadership. Tolbert’s administration was frequently accused of corruption and nepotism, and his poor agricultural policies also resulted in riots across the country.
However, Liberian politics would be tarnished by more gruesome revelations. Between 1965 and 1977, over 100 people disappeared, with the bodies later found mutilated. These numbers increased dramatically, with 14 people being killed between 1976 and 1977. These murders went uninvestigated until a popular fisherman and musician named Moses Tweh disappeared in Maryland County. His body was found similarly mutilated.
Following an investigation, 12 people were arrested in relation to the murder, including the county’s Superintendent and its Representative in the Liberian House of Representatives, as well as other local politicians. It was revealed that Moses Tweh was murdered as part of a ritual “juju” murder in the hope of granting the local politicians higher positions in government.
Of the 12 arrested, seven, including the local politicians, were executed for murder. Known as the Maryland Ritual Killings, these heinous acts further eroded trust in Tolbert’s presidency.
Samuel Doe’s Coup d’Etat
On April 12, 1980, 17 officers under the command of Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, all of whom were Indigenous Liberians of the Krahn ethnic group, orchestrated a violent coup against Tolbert. The men stormed the President’s Executive Mansion and murdered Tolbert along with 27 others, including members of Tolbert’s family.
In the immediate aftermath of the coup, Doe and his conspirators formed the People’s Redemption Council to rule Liberia as a military dictatorship.
By the end of April, Doe arrested 13 leading members of Tolbert’s government and put them on trial. The sham trial did not allow legal representation for the accused and did not have a jury. The 13 were found guilty of high treason, corruption, and human rights abuses and were promptly executed by firing squad. Amongst the executed government officials were Frank Tolbert, brother of the deposed president, who served as President pro tempore of the Liberian Senate, as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chairman of the True Whig Party, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Samuel Doe’s coup officially ended 133 years of Americo-Liberian rule. Liberia was now under Indigenous leadership.
Liberia Under Samuel Doe
Despite his bloody coup and aversion to democracy, Doe received support from the United States, who hoped to dissuade the spread of communism in the region amidst the Cold War.
Five years after his coup, Doe dissolved the People’s Redemption Council and promised to hold elections in an attempt to legitimize his rule, as he himself was becoming increasingly paranoid about being toppled by a coup.
In 1985, Doe successfully won the presidential election with a marginal 51% victory. However, it is widely accepted the election was fraudulent. It is also strongly believed that if Doe had lost the election, he would have refused to relinquish power.
Doe’s paranoia about being toppled in a coup was validated. On November 12, 1985, Thomas Quiwonkpa, who participated in the 1980 coup against Tolbert alongside Doe, attempted to seize power for himself. Quiwonkpa had fallen out with Doe two years prior and fled to the United States. He had returned and, with the support of a small contingent of armed rebels, attempted to topple Doe. The coup, however, was a resounding failure. Quiwonkpa was killed alongside 15 of his supporters. His bloodied body was later publicly displayed.
In response to the coup, Doe became increasingly repressive toward the Gio and Mano ethnic groups of Nimba County, from which Quiwonkpa originated. The Gio and Mano were ethnically purged, with a reported 3,000 killed by Doe’s government, in what many describe as a genocide.
The Rise of Charles Taylor
Originally a supporter of Samuel Doe’s coup, Charles Taylor was appointed Director General of the General Services Agency in Doe’s government. Taylor abused his new-found power and embezzled around $1 million in government money. When his crimes were eventually uncovered, he fled to the US.
Seeking to bring Taylor to justice, Doe made a personal request to President Ronald Reagan to extradite Taylor to Liberia. Reagan consented, and Taylor was arrested and imprisoned in Massachusetts. In September 1985, Taylor, along with four other inmates, escaped prison by supposedly sawing through the bars on their cell’s window and scaling down the wall using knotted bedsheets. Years later, Taylor would claim that the CIA assisted in his escape. The US Defence Intelligence Agency later confirmed that Taylor had started working with US Intelligence during the 1980’s. However, the exact details of this relationship and whether the CIA had assisted in his escape have never been disclosed.
It is believed that upon his escape, Taylor fled across the border into Mexico and then traveled to Libya. There, he became a protégé of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and received extensive military training. With funding from Gaddafi, Taylor created the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), an armed group with the singular aim of overthrowing Samuel Doe.
Charles Taylor Attacks
On December 24, 1989, Taylor and his men crossed into Liberian territory and launched their attack on Doe’s government.
Doe rapidly mobilized his forces in response and sent troops to confront Taylor. However, government forces indiscriminately attacked the innocent local populations, believing they were collaborating with the enemy. Taylor had launched his attack on Nimba County, the same county that Doe had purged of the Gio and Mano people. Now facing further attacks from Doe’s government, considerable numbers of Gio and Mano joined Taylor’s ranks.
Thousands now marched behind Taylor, but not just men, as Taylor began recruiting child soldiers into his ranks. Hundreds of child soldiers were recruited into a unit known as the Small Boys Force. It is even reported that some children were forced to murder their own parents to prove their loyalty to Taylor.
Soon after his initial invasion, Taylor’s NPFL force split, as high-ranking officer Prince Johnson led a breakaway group called the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL).
Advance on Monrovia
By the mid-1990s, the NPFL and INPFL, now rivals, simultaneously advanced on the capital of Monrovia.
Doe remained fortified in his residence at the Executive Mansion while his men patrolled the city. Under cover of night, Doe’s forces scoured the city, hunting for people believed to be from Nimba County, whom they believed were collaborating with the rebels. Innocent civilians were kidnapped, beaten, and murdered.
Fearing for their lives, hundreds of families sought refuge inside St Peters Lutheran Church. In the middle of the night on July 29, 1990, Doe’s troops stormed the church and slaughtered those inside. Approximately 600 men, women, and children were shot to death or killed by machetes. The church massacre was the single worst atrocity committed during the war and gained the attention of the world.
Downfall of Doe
The increasing number of civilian casualties prompted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene in Liberia. Together, they established the Economic Community Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) under Nigerian leadership in hopes of negotiating a ceasefire and developing an interim government.
On September 9, 1990, Doe left the Executive Mansion to visit the newly established ECOMOG Headquarters and meet with operations commander General Quainoo. Although Doe was accompanied by a contingent of 80 men, they were only lightly armed.
Soon after his arrival, the ECOMOG headquarters were attacked by Prince Johnson’s INPFL. All of Doe’s men were massacred in the ensuing firefight, and Doe himself was taken prisoner.
Doe was taken to Prince Johnson’s base and was brutally tortured. His ears, toes, and fingers were cut off. After 12 hours, Doe was finally murdered, and his corpse was put on public display. Parts of Doe’s torture were videotaped by Johnson’s men. During the ordeal, Prince Johnson was filmed sipping beer and being fanned by an assistant while Doe’s ears were removed.
With Doe dead, ECOWAS attempted to negotiate a peace deal between the various remaining factions. Numerous talks took place throughout 1990 and 1991. However, Taylor refused to attend any of the talks. By late 1990, an interim government was formed, with Doctor Amos Sawyer appointed Interim President. While Sawyer was able to regain control of most of Monrovia, violence continued across most of Liberia.
ULIMO and General Butt Naked
Following his death, many of Doe’s supporters formed the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) to continue fighting against Taylor and Johnson. ULIMO was mostly comprised of members of the Krahn ethnic group, the same as Doe, who were forced to flee into Sierra Leone because of rebel attacks. The group was led by Alhaji Kromah.
In September 1991, ULIMO crossed into Liberia from Sierra Leone and made considerable inroads into territory controlled by Taylor’s NPFL. Because of internal disagreements, ULIMO quickly fractured into two forces: ULIMO-K, led by Kromah, and ULIMO-J, led by Roosevelt Johnson.
Joshua Milton Blahyi led a contingent of ULIMO-J. From the Krahn ethnic group, Blahyi believed in black magic. At the age of 11, he was initiated as a high priest and oversaw human sacrifices. He later claimed that Samuel Doe personally employed him to perform black magic rituals to ensure his victory during the 1985 election.
Blahyi joined ULIMO following Doe’s murder. He gained the moniker “General Butt Naked” on account of running into battle naked, believing his black magic made him invulnerable to bullets. Blahyi became a warlord, leading his own force known as the Naked Based Commandos, which comprised a significant number of child soldiers. During the conflict, Blahyi and his force committed numerous egregious acts of human sacrifice and cannibalism. Blahyi himself would admit to these acts, as well as personally committing numerous acts of child murder.
An Eventual Peace
Fighting continued in Liberia for the next few years. Taylor attempted a second advance on Monrovia in 1992 which was unsuccessful. The various factions continually fought over Liberia’s gold and diamond mines. The bloodied treasures of these mines were sold to Mexican drug cartels in return for cocaine and weapons.
In 1993, ECOWAS attempted to broker a peace agreement, and the United Nations dispatched an observer mission to support its efforts. However, the peace talks quickly collapsed.
Humanitarian conditions worsened until 1995, when Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings successfully negotiated a ceasefire agreement. A ruling council of nine members was established to oversee Liberia, including Charles Taylor of the NPFL and Alhadji Kromah of ULIMO-K.
Fighting broke out once again in 1996 until the Nigerian government finally negotiated a ceasefire, demobilization, and disarmament agreement. The government also promised democratic elections by the end of 1997.
After the votes had been counted, Charles Taylor had won a staggering 75% of votes and was thus elected the new President of Liberia, ending the First Liberian Civil War.
Aftermath
Although the First Liberian Civil War was over, fighting still continued sporadically in the first year of Taylor’s presidency. In 1998, Taylor attempted to purge Roosevelt Johnson and his ULIMO-J followers from the government, which resulted in the wider persecution of the Krahn ethnic group. Taylor proved to be a poor president. He embezzled millions of dollars of government funding and was accused of supporting rebel forces in neighboring Sierra Leone in return for blood diamonds.
In 1999, just two years after the end of the first civil war, a rebellion was launched against Taylor. The ensuing Second Liberian Civil War resulted in the deaths of 250,000 people.
Facing inevitable defeat, Taylor chose to resign his presidency and fled to Nigeria. A few years later, he was arrested and put on trial by the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone for crimes against humanity. Following a six-year-long trial, he was found guilty of numerous crimes, including rape, murder, enslavement, terrorism, and the use of child soldiers. Taylor was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment and is currently held at HM Prison Frankland in Great Britain.
While many believed that Taylor’s imprisonment signaled the certain end of his political influence, he unbelievably remains a prominent figure within Liberian politics. Reports surfaced in 2017 that Taylor was making phone calls from prison to gather support for his National Patriotic Party. His ex-wife and former first lady, Jewel Taylor, also served as vice president from 2018 to 2024.
Prince Johnson, leader of the INPFL and the man responsible for the Murder of Samuel Doe, is currently an elected member of the Liberian Senate.
Joshua Blahyi, or “General Butt Naked,” the self-confessed child murderer, converted to Christianity following the war and became an evangelical preacher.
The First Liberian Civil War resulted in the deaths of 200,000 people and the displacement of a further one million people. Liberians suffered almost unimaginable horrors in one of the bloodiest wars in African history. Ultimately, the war resulted in removing one brutal autocratic dictator with another. Left devastated, Liberia has struggled to recover and has remained one of the world’s most impoverished nations.
