Religion & Media in Liberia's Civil War

I AM HAPPY to be chosen to share my experiences with you on the Liberian war, and to delve further into the impact of the war on journalists and the role played by the religious community.

I find myself best suited to speak on this topic because, throughout the crisis, I lived and still continue to live in Liberia and have a first-hand experience as a journalist to be able to say how many of us were affected by the civil war. Like most of my other colleagues, I was directly affected and had to stay away from home and my family for weeks because of clashes between the warring factions in my residential area.

Since the late 1980s, early 1990s and up to early 2000s, the sub-region witnessed political instabilities, specifically with the four Mano River Union (MRU) countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast) being at the epicenter of these crisis.
 
Since its formation by freed black slaves in the 1800s, Liberia had been a citadel of peace and stability in Africa. The nation cracked this enviable tradition in a most brutal and horrific way, when the nation’s civil crisis broke out leading to the death of thousands of people, including journalists.

The outbreak of the Liberian crisis was followed by similar crisis in Sierra Leone, Guinea and then to Ivory Coast. In countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone for example, the belligerent forces were split based on tribal and religious lines, although on the other hand religion played a vital role in the resolution of the crisis in these two countries. I will dwell briefly on how religion helped end these conflicts later on in my speech, but let me talk about how religion interplay with these crisis.

In Liberia, religion complicated the war and became one of the key factors that prolonged it. Religion caused massive death and destruction and deaths in the war because at some point in time people became targets or were eliminated merely on the basis of their religion.
 
In the early 1990s, tribal and factional groups that saw each other as rivals went to the extent to prosecute the war based on their religious beliefs because their fighters were drawn to their factions or forces based on where they were established, who the leaders were, and the religion of the group.

For example, during the first course of the Liberian civil war in the 1990s, the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), which became the second largest warring faction in the country reportedly got much of its backing and support from Liberia’s neighbor Guinea with most of its members and fighters hailing from the majority-Muslim Mandingo ethnic group. This made the force (ULIMO) to appear as a Muslim organized warring faction, although in fact it had members from other religious groups in key positions.
 
Additionally, it was generally believed among warring groups that they should come together in a more unify manner to protect their members and the faith they practice since in fact it became obvious that some people were being murdered or targeted based on their religious affiliation, which could be determined also by the faction they support or back in the crisis.