Liberia’s war and peace: Lessons from 30 years’ reporting
I am glad I managed to stay alive to pen these words.
Over the last three decades, colleagues have died while doing their job and I have found my life threatened, especially when covering Liberia’s conflicts.
But I survived.
Three decades ago, during the first of Liberia’s two civil wars that overwhelmed the country for 14 years, I wanted to tell the story of the people trapped behind rebel lines.
I was in Gbarnga – the stronghold of then-rebel leader Charles Taylor, whose forces controlled most of Liberia except the capital, Monrovia.
Where better to tell those stories than on the BBC World Service’s Focus on Africa radio programme?
Liberians had become addicted to the broadcast following Taylor’s interviews with its editor at the time, Robin White. It was required listening wherever you were.
And it was almost an…
