MONROVIA: Thousands of people took to the streets of Liberia’s capital Monrovia Friday to protest rising prices and corruption, posing a key political test for President George Weah.
The football icon is being challenged over the same issues on which he campaigned in his rise to the presidency of the impoverished West African state just 18 months ago.
About 10,000 people took part in the demonstration, according to an AFP count, while a police official put the turnout at around 4,000.
Some held aloft placards reading: “We are tired of suffering” and “We want better living conditions.”
The mood was upbeat, with people dancing and singing. But in a country traumatized by years of civil war, many braced for possible clashes, and some stocked up on food, fearing prolonged disruption.
Twitter and Facebook, widely used by protest organizers, were down.
“I am staying home to make sure that my kids don’t get in the streets. I have good reasons to be scared. In the history of this country all of our big crises started with demonstrations and ended in serious violence,” Mustafa Kanneh, 43, told AFP.
The UN’s special envoy to West Africa and the Sahel, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, said last month he feared the authorities did not have the means to successfully manage large-scale protests.
“The capacity of the Liberian state is still quite limited... There are serious logistics and financial challenges,” he told a local daily.
The coalition that organized the march, the Council of Patriots, comprises dozens of civil society groups as well as politicians.
On Thursday, Weah issued a statement defending his record, blaming past governments for the country’s entrenched problems and sternly warning the protest organizers.
“You can say whatever you want to, but be warned that cusses, insults and incitement of violence will never again be permitted under my administration,” he said.
Weah, 52, is revered in Liberia and beyond for blazing a trail for African footballers in Europe.
But he is struggling to revive a country that is one of the poorest in the world and still traumatized by back-to-back civil wars between 1989 and 2003 that claimed a quarter of a million lives.
Rising prices are a major source of discontent.
“Before, 500 LD (500 Liberian dollars — $2.5, 2.3 euros) was enough to adequately feed my family each day,” said Angeline Flomo, a 35-year-old housewife and mother-of-four.
“Now, 1,000 LD can’t feed us. This is how bad things have become. A bag of 25 kilos (55 pounds) of rice used to sell for 1,500 LD, now it is 2,800 to 3,000 LD. We are finding it difficult to make ends meet.”
Fingers are being pointed at past and present managers of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL).
Last October, rumors swirled that newly-printed Liberian dollars worth US $102 million, intended for the CBL’s reserves, had disappeared shortly after arrival from abroad.
Charles Sirleaf — the son of former president and Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — was detained in March with two other CBL figures.
An independent probe found no money was missing, but flagged “concerns regarding the overall accuracy and completeness of the CBL’s internal records.”
More irregularities came to light related to a cash injection of $25 million that Weah ordered in July 2018 to mop up excess Liberian dollars and bring inflation under control.
Weah says he is aware of the burden of ordinary people, and improvement to health, education and roads remain his priorities.
“We have done much over the short time to (address) bad conditions, which of course are not our making,” he said Thursday.
“We met the hardship and inherited all the bad conditions and without making excuses, we are solving them.”
Weah maintains Liberia will benefit from an International Monetary Fund aid program, but experts say IMF support typically comes with demands for reform and belt-tightening.
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Thousands protest price hikes, corruption in Liberia
Thousands protest price hikes, corruption in Liberia
- The football icon George Weah is being challenged over the same issues on which he campaigned in his rise to the presidency of the impoverished West African state just 18 months ago
- Weah issued a statement defending his record, blaming past governments for the country’s entrenched problems and sternly warning the protest organizers
North Korea ruling party promotes Kim Jong Un’s younger sister
- North Korea’s ruling party has elevated leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful younger sister to a top position, state media said Tuesday
SEOUL: North Korea’s ruling party has elevated leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful younger sister to a top position, state media said Tuesday, a sign of her far-reaching influence within the reclusive nation.
Thousands of party elites have packed the capital Pyongyang for a once-in-five-years summit of the ruling Workers’ Party, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning.
Kim Yo Jong — long considered one of her brother’s closest lieutenants — was promoted to department director within the party’s apex central committee, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Although it was not clear which department she would lead, she has previously held a senior role within the party’s propaganda unit.
Kim Yo Jong has in recent years emerged as one of the most powerful figures in North Korea, playing a highly visible role in diplomacy, nuclear negotiations and other matters of state.
“Kim Yo Jong is one of the very few people Kim Jong Un can trust and rely on,” said Ahn Chan-il, a researcher originally from North Korea.
“She also served as a working-level official for Kim’s summits with Trump in Singapore and Hanoi. She is experienced and seasoned,” he told AFP.
Kim Yo Jong burst on to the international scene in 2018, when she was dispatched to Seoul as North Korea’s envoy for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
With that trip, she became one of the first members of the ruling Kim dynasty to set foot in the South since the Korean War.
Since then she has gained a reputation for her vitriolic denunciations of Washington and Seoul.
She once derided the government of former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol as a “faithful dog” of the United States.
Her tone has softened somewhat since South Korea’s incumbent leader Lee Jae Myung — who has sought to mend ties with the North — took office last year.
Kim Yo Jong’s latest advancement “amounts to promotion to ministerial rank,” said Lim Eul-chul from the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.
- Rapid rise -
Remarkably little is known about Kim Yo Jong given her prominent role in North Korea’s dealings with the outside world.
Born in 1988, according to the South Korean government, she is one of three children born to Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, and his third known partner, former dancer Ko Yong Hui.
She was educated in Switzerland alongside her brother and rose rapidly up the ranks once he inherited power after their father’s death in 2011.
Pyongyang has never officially disclosed any information about Kim Yo Jong’s marital status or children.
Rare footage released by state media last year showed her attending an art show with two young children.
The Workers’ Party congress offers a rare glimpse into the political workings of reclusive North Korea, and is widely seen as a forum for Kim to flex his grip on power.
It is just the ninth time the gathering has been called to order under North Korea’s decades-spanning Kim dynasty.
There is keen interest in whether the congress might also promote leader Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae.
Kim Ju Ae has emerged as a clear frontrunner to continue the family dynasty, according to South Korea’s national intelligence service.
US President Donald Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim Jong Un during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting.
But the North Korean leader has so far largely shunned efforts to resume top-level diplomatic dialogue.
Thousands of party elites have packed the capital Pyongyang for a once-in-five-years summit of the ruling Workers’ Party, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning.
Kim Yo Jong — long considered one of her brother’s closest lieutenants — was promoted to department director within the party’s apex central committee, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Although it was not clear which department she would lead, she has previously held a senior role within the party’s propaganda unit.
Kim Yo Jong has in recent years emerged as one of the most powerful figures in North Korea, playing a highly visible role in diplomacy, nuclear negotiations and other matters of state.
“Kim Yo Jong is one of the very few people Kim Jong Un can trust and rely on,” said Ahn Chan-il, a researcher originally from North Korea.
“She also served as a working-level official for Kim’s summits with Trump in Singapore and Hanoi. She is experienced and seasoned,” he told AFP.
Kim Yo Jong burst on to the international scene in 2018, when she was dispatched to Seoul as North Korea’s envoy for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
With that trip, she became one of the first members of the ruling Kim dynasty to set foot in the South since the Korean War.
Since then she has gained a reputation for her vitriolic denunciations of Washington and Seoul.
She once derided the government of former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol as a “faithful dog” of the United States.
Her tone has softened somewhat since South Korea’s incumbent leader Lee Jae Myung — who has sought to mend ties with the North — took office last year.
Kim Yo Jong’s latest advancement “amounts to promotion to ministerial rank,” said Lim Eul-chul from the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.
- Rapid rise -
Remarkably little is known about Kim Yo Jong given her prominent role in North Korea’s dealings with the outside world.
Born in 1988, according to the South Korean government, she is one of three children born to Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, and his third known partner, former dancer Ko Yong Hui.
She was educated in Switzerland alongside her brother and rose rapidly up the ranks once he inherited power after their father’s death in 2011.
Pyongyang has never officially disclosed any information about Kim Yo Jong’s marital status or children.
Rare footage released by state media last year showed her attending an art show with two young children.
The Workers’ Party congress offers a rare glimpse into the political workings of reclusive North Korea, and is widely seen as a forum for Kim to flex his grip on power.
It is just the ninth time the gathering has been called to order under North Korea’s decades-spanning Kim dynasty.
There is keen interest in whether the congress might also promote leader Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae.
Kim Ju Ae has emerged as a clear frontrunner to continue the family dynasty, according to South Korea’s national intelligence service.
US President Donald Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim Jong Un during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting.
But the North Korean leader has so far largely shunned efforts to resume top-level diplomatic dialogue.
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