Liberia 2018

Liberia is a small West African nation with an estimated population of over 4.6 million people. The majority of the population are descendants of former American slaves, though there are also many indigenous tribes and other immigrants from neighboring countries. The economy of Liberia is largely based on agriculture, forestry and mining, as well as the service sector. Foreign relations are mainly concentrated around regional countries in West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Guinea. Liberia also maintains strong ties to the United States, which has provided significant economic aid to the country in recent years. According to extrareference, Liberia is a presidential republic headed by President George Weah since 2018. In 2018, the country saw some political unrest due to allegations of corruption and economic mismanagement by the government. Despite these challenges, the people remain hopeful that their voices will be heard and that they will be able to build a brighter future for their nation.

Yearbook 2018

Liberia. According to Countryaah.com, Monrovia is the capital city of Liberia, a country located in Western Africa. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has been president since 2006, handed over power to George Weah, a winner in the December 2017 presidential elections. A week earlier, she had been excluded from the Unity Party after being accused of urging voters not to vote for party candidate Joseph Boakai in the presidential election. In February, it was announced that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was awarded the Ibrahim Prize, which is awarded to democratically elected African heads of state or government who have shown good leadership and resigned after the maximum number of terms allowed by the country’s constitution.

• According to Abbreviationfinder: LBR is an three letter acronym for Liberia.

George Weah took office as president in February. In his installation speech, he did not promise any quick solutions to the problems the country is grappling with, but promised to fight corruption, try to help the country’s resources be more equitably distributed and that civil servants should receive salaries that can be lived on.

In the government appointed by Weah, he let Interior Minister Varney Sirleaf, the son of Johnson Sirleaf’s ex-husband, remain. Only one woman got a seat in the government, Williametta Piso Saydee-Tarr, who was given responsibility for issues relating to children, gender and social protection. The appointment of Charles Gibson as Minister of Justice was criticized, not for the fact that he is close to Weah, but for having his lawyer’s license revoked by the Supreme Court after he was convicted of embezzling a client’s money. After a few weeks, Weah felt compelled to replace Gibson with Musa Dean, former lawyer for the National Electoral Commission.

After four years of discussions about a bill that would give local communities greater rights to land that they usually claim, the law was signed in September by President Weah. According to groups that have fought for these rights, the state has previously approved agreements that have given foreign companies the right to cut down forests, grow oil palms or conduct mining on land belonging to the people who use it. Ownership should now be shown by means of oral testimonies, maps and written agreements between communities.

In March, the UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia (UNMIL) ended after 15 years. President Weah promised at a ceremony in the capital, Monrovia, to maintain peace in the country. In April, one of Liberia’s former warlords, Mohammad Jabbateh (“Jungle Jabbah”) was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United States, where he has been living since the late 1990s. During the trial, several witnesses heard about the cruel abuses committed by Jabbateh’s rebel groups according to prosecutors, including murders, rapes, mutilations and cannibalism. The trial itself did not, however, concern allegations of war crimes, but Jabbateh was convicted of lying when he applied for political asylum in the United States.

Economic conditions

The economy of Liberia is based on the production or extraction of only goods intended for export (rubber, iron ores). However, the production and export of minerals have been drastically reduced as a result of the occupation of the mining regions by rebel forces and the fall in world demand. Even the proceeds linked to the abnormal number of merchant ships registered in the Liberian registers (due to the particular technical and fiscal facilitations granted by the government) have decreased: the growing international hostility towards shadow flags and increased competition have in fact determined a contraction of the merchant fleet under the Liberian flag (1553 ships for about 54 million GRT in 2004). On the other hand, the country in an ideal base for all kinds of trafficking and smuggling (arms, drugs, diamonds). Overall, the trade balance is in strong deficit and the country depends on international aid for its survival.

Rural areas have suffered the greatest upheavals and above all subsistence production has dropped significantly, making their inability to meet domestic needs more acute and more serious. With the cessation of hostilities, crops have been intensified and data on production have significantly improved. Among the subsistence crops, rice and cassava prevail. They also grow coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, peanuts, banana trees. The country’s forest heritage is exploited for mahogany and the cola tree.

The industrial sector holds, in the context of the Liberian economy, a negligible weight: small factories for the processing of local products clearly prevail, from which it follows an almost total dependence on abroad for the supply of machinery, means of transport and industrial products, as well as for food supplies; however, there are some large complexes: a rubber plant in Harbel, an oil refinery and a cement factory in Monrovia.

The communication routes include approximately 500 km of railways and a road network of 10,600 km. The main sea ports are those of Monrovia, Buchanan, Greenville and Harper; an international airport is located in Robertsfield.