Armed militants hostile to the Ivorian government have recruited Liberian children and carried out deadly cross-border raids on Ivorian villages in recent months, Human Rights Watch says. Liberian authorities have failed to investigate and prosecute dozens of Liberian and Ivorian nationals who crossed into Liberia after committing war crimes during Côte d’Ivoire’s 2010-2011 post-election crisis, some of whom have been implicated in the recent attacks, Human Rights Watch said.

Under mounting pressure, Liberia on Saturday announced it was closing its border with neighbouring Ivory Coast following a fatal attack on UN peacekeepers. Seven Nigerien UN peacekeepers died in the attack on Friday which also claimed the lives of eight civilians and an Ivorian soldier. Both the UN and the Ivorian government believe the attackers came from Liberia.

The Judges of Trial Chamber II on 30 May sentenced convicted former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor to a term of 50 years in prison for planning and for aiding and abetting crimes committed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone during the country's decade-long civil war. The Trial Chamber, comprised of Justice Richard Lussick of Samoa (Presiding), Justice Teresa Doherty of Northern Ireland, and Justice Sebutinde of Uganda, unanimously imposed the single global sentence for all 11 counts of the crimes for which Mr. Taylor was convicted. These included acts of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, outrages upon personal dignity, cruel treatment, other inhumane acts, conscripting or enlisting of child soldiers, enslavement and pillage.

During almost 20 years of exile in Guinea, Joseph did not know if his family was alive or dead. When he recently found out by chance that they had survived the attack that caused him to flee his native Liberia, he decided he must go back. 'For the first time, I am eager to return home. I want to see my family,' said the 55-year-old fisherman, who is joining a growing number of Liberian refugees who are returning home with UNHCR help before they lose refugee status.

On April 26, former Liberian President Charles Taylor was convicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of international law for aiding and abetting rebels from 1996-2002 in Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war. Immediately after the verdict, announced on the eve of Sierra Leone's 51st Independence Day, emotions ranged from excitement to disappointment, showing the complexity of the case.

In a special co-production by SOAS Radio and Pambazuka News, our presenter Robtel Pailey was in the Hague, interviewing Brenda Hollis and Stephen Rapp, current and former chief prosecutors of the Special Court for Sierra Leone; Courtenay Griffiths, Taylor’s defense attorney; Sharon Taylor, Taylor’s daughter; Hawa Momoh and Abu Duffae, Sierra Leoneans who witnessed the verdict with anticipation; and A. Fasu Kanneh, a Liberian resident in the Hague who worked with Taylor in 1980s Liberia. We discuss whether or not Charles Taylor’s verdict is an indication of selective justice, as argued by the defense, or a victory for international justice, as argued by the prosecution.

Former Liberian President and war crimes convict Charles Taylor has picked Morris Anyah as his appeals counsel. The announcement came ahead of the sentencing hearing slated for May 16, to be followed by the sentencing judgement later on May 30. Anyah has since 2007 served as co-counsel on the Taylor Defence team. The African-American legal expert is an international legal expert, who also cross examined the actress Naomi Campbell over 'blood diamonds' at The Hague where the model acknowledged receiving 'dirty looking stones'.

Nathan Charles spent over two months investigating and exposing the poor conditions at the Bong Mines hospital in Bong County, Liberia. Through his ongoing investigation, Charles discovered that not only did the health center have inadequate facilities to serve the surrounding community, it also was short on doctors and medication. It wasn’t long before word spread about the conditions patients endured at the Bong Mines Hospital and the Liberian government was forced to step in.

Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been forced to backtrack on alleged comments published by the UK newspaper, The Guardian, which suggested she was opposed to gay rights. While holding a joint interview with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Monrovia, the president had been asked a question about an anti-gay Bill being debated by Liberian lawmakers. The Guardian reported Mrs Sirleaf as responding: 'We’ve got certain traditional values in our society that we would like to preserve...We like ourselves just the way we are.'

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to make it her priority to protect the life of Mae Azango, a female reporter of Front Page newspaper who has been threatened for having published last week a story on the Sande society which practices Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Liberia. 'The threats made by the Sande society are unacceptable and a throw-back to dark ages of journalism which have no place in a modern democracy led by a female president for that matter,' said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office. 'The Government of President Sirleaf should warn the Sande society of its direct responsibility for any attack on the journalist’s life.'

A woman journalist has gone into hiding in Liberia after receiving threats over an expose she published on female genital mutilation (FGM). Mae Azango, who reports for the local daily FrontPage Africa and the international news website New Narratives, went into hiding after her article was published last week in which she reported two out of three girls were victims of FGM in certain parts of the country.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Liberian authorities to ensure the safety of journalists who have been repeatedly threatened for exposing the practice of female genital mutilation in the country. Mae Azango, a reporter for the daily FrontPage Africa and the news website New Narratives, told CPJ she had gone into hiding after receiving several threats for an article she published about Liberian tribes practicing female genital mutilation on as many as two out of every three girls in the country. 'They left messages and told people to tell me that they will catch me and cut me so that will make me shut up,' Azango said.

The marginalization of indigenous communities during concession negotiations and project implementation has resulted in high tensions around a number of foreign direct investment projects in Liberia, says this report from Columbia University's Centre for Conflict Resolution that looks at the social impact of FDI. 'This tension has occasionally led to violence and other forms of social unrest, which could feasibly lead to conditions that might threaten peace in the country.'

Pa Sando, the town chief of Konja, in Grand Cape Mount county in Liberia, looks out across the farmland. 'I used to pick cocoa on this farm for more than 30 years. My grandfather planted it for us,' he says. 'All this area here was mine, and now it's all gone.' The land has been leased by Sime Darby Plantation (Liberia) Inc, owned by the Malaysian-based multinational Sime Darby, to grow trees for palm oil. Sando said he was never asked whether he wanted to give up his land – only that he saw the bulldozers in the bush and then his land was taken.

Liberia’s former football star-turned politician, George Weah, has been reinstalled as the leader of Liberia’s main opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) following the expulsion of presidential candidate Winston Tubman. The party has been in crisis since the ruling Unity Party of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf defeated it during the presidential elections last year, making it the second defeat in a row. A statement by the party aid Mr Tubman was relieved of the position as a result of nepotism, corruption, lack of accountability and transparency, and unethical behaviour.

On a recent hot Saturday afternoon, tempers flared outside a school building in the village of Madina as organizers tried to work out who could and could not attend the meeting inside between the visiting government delegation and community representatives. The meeting's agenda was clear: the activities of Sime Darby Plantation Liberia (SDLP) and their impact on the surrounding land and its inhabitants. One of the most prominent in a club of new, high-profile investors committed to long-term projects in Liberia, SDLP's future activities are meant to bring Liberia billions of dollars in revenue and some 35,000 jobs.

Former Liberian first lady Jewel Howard Taylor has introduced a bill making homosexuality liable to a death sentence. Jewel is a senator and former president Charles Taylor’s ex-wife. Uganda re-tabled a similar controversial anti-gay bill recently. Homosexuality is outlawed in 38 African countries and it can be punishable by death in Mauritania, Sudan, and northern Nigeria. This Global Voices post summarises the reactions from the blogosphere.

Liberia's Independent National Human Rights Commission has said it would from next month begin implementing the recommendations of the defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which included prosecuting key warlords. The Truth Commission had also recommended that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf be barred from holding public office for a period of 30 years, which analysts say would be near-impossible to implement. The sanctions carry financial, political and legal ramifications, sources said.

'LGBT Liberians live in fear, disempowered and daily imperiled. The war for them has not ended. Their lives are defined by danger and violence, persecution, hate speech and threats, discrimination and harassment. They are stigmatized, publicly rejected and almost completely abandoned by government. Their vulnerability affects all areas of their lives – church, school, employers, landlords, media, street mobs, rapists, predators, political actors, opinion leaders, family.'

Hundreds of villagers and town residents of Liberia’s Grand Cape Mount Country have attracted nationwide attention in their bid to recover what they say is land seized from them and turned over to a Malaysian agro-industrial concern. A petition sent to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s office in January by the aggrieved people’s political representatives demanded the return of their land.

Health officials and women in Liberia say family planning options can empower girls and women to stay in school and concentrate on their businesses. But many fathers and husbands here don’t approve of the introduction of family planning. As a result, many young women are keeping their contraceptive choices secret, reports Global Press Institute.