Liberian Military - The new National Defense Act of 2008 was passed on 21 August 2008. It repeals the National Defense Act of 1956, the Coast Guard Act of 1959 and the Liberian Navy Act of 1986. The duties and functions of the AFL are officially stated as
follows: [1] The AFL was reformed and retrained after being completely demobilized after the Second Civil War. The AFL currently consists of two infantry battalions and the small Liberian National Coast Guard, which is being reformed.
Liberian Military
Source: nationaltoday.com
The Liberian government has requested that a Nigerian army officer be the head of the army during the transition period. In mid-2013, the Government of Liberia (GoL) decided to support the newly established UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) with water from the AFL.[81]
Legal Standing
Initially under Nigerian command, but when Nigeria withdrew from the mission later that year, the AFL platoon came under the command of the Togolese contingent. This was the first time since deployment to ONUC in the early 1960s that Liberia had contributed to a UN mission and it was seen as an important milestone not only in rebuilding the AFL, but also in rebuilding Liberia as a country on the rise.
from the ashes of the civil war. Moreover, it was an important test for the AFL to prove its capability and despite some initial logistical problems, the platoon performed excellently, patrolling and VIP escort missions. The platoon is scheduled to withdraw to Liberia by the end of 2013. There appears to be a lack of coordination, at least according to the Wall Street Journal, between the Department of National Defense and DynCorp, which is training the new army.
In the report from August 2007, the newspaper wrote: Mr. Samukai also complains that he feels left out of the formation of the military that he, as defense minister, is supposed to oversee. Neither the State Department nor DynCorp would let him see the company's contracts, for example.
And the US insists that instead of talking directly to DynCorp executives, he goes through Major Wyatt [Chief of the Defense Cooperation Office at the US Embassy in Monrovia] on all matters related to training.[69] Under Samuel Doe, the Coast Guard was renamed the Liberian Navy in 1986 with the passing of the Liberian Navy Act of 1986.[38]
Liberia - Us Military Intervention
The aviation unit was established in 1970 with the delivery of three Cessna U-17C light aircraft. An aviation unit plane crashed at Spriggs-Payne in 1984.[39] In 1985, he operated three fixed-wing aircraft from Spriggs Payne Airport in Monrovia, including Cessna 172s.[40]
Their duties included reconnaissance and the transport of light cargo and VIPs.[27] The aviation unit was expanded in the 1980s with the delivery of more Cessna aircraft: three 172s, one 206, 207 and two single-engine turboprop 208s.
"The Army needs a general, a long-serving general, an experienced general, not a little, 40-year-old boy who joined the Army in 2006," Boye said. He sits in a dark blue bunker-like room with two other aging soldiers as Otis Redding's "I've Got Dreams to Remember" plays from a large street speaker.
Source: media.defense.gov
Most soldiers earn $210 a month, far more than most Liberians, but still not enough, many say, to support a family. Some soldiers say they were offered opportunities that did not materialize. A man in his early 30s who joined the military in 2007 and asked not to be named says the Liberian defense ministry told him he would receive a university education in exchange for military service, but that did not happen.
First Liberian Civil War
A plan to provide pensions for soldiers has not yet been approved. As part of post-conflict security sector reforms, Liberia's National Defense Act of 2008 included provisions (Chapter 4 of the Act) for the re-establishment of the LCG.
Based on a letter of request (LOR) from the Government of the Republic of Croatia dated September 4, 2007 and with the consent of the US Embassy in Monrovia, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) sent a technical review and assessment team to Liberia in August 2008.
The team produced a report titled "Assessment and Recommendations for the Re-establishment of the Liberian Coast Guard" outlining a comprehensive development plan for the LCG that addresses the following elements: Whether he is well regarded or not, Samukai has been accused of abusing his
powers; there were allegations that he ordered soldiers to deal with other senior Liberian government officials – the Comptroller General of the Ministry of Finance in August 2008.[70] The Ziankahn are Bassa, an ethnic group not affiliated with the warring factions.
Taylor Regime
He grew up in a poor family, one of 19 children. His mother sold palm oil and dry goods for a living, and his father worked at a mid-level position in the civil service. Major Theophilus Momo Duo is currently serving as Acting Commander of the Liberian Coast Guard (LCG).
As Acting Commandant, Major Duo oversees all Coast Guard operations, training and administration. Prior to the assignment, Major Duo served as the executive director of the Armed Forces Training Command (AFTC) at Camp Sandee Ware, Careysburg.
Previous engagements: Maj. Duo served as executive director at AFTC from 2005 to 2019. Engineer Plan Manager at AFTC and led the Doctrine and Education Division at AFTC. May. The duo was Principal at the Horton Academy in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 2013, where they oversaw the training of officers from the Sierra Leone Army, the AFL and the Gambian Army.
During his career, Major Duo served with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA) in Mali in 2018. “We're doing well here, but this is more than seven years, and after a while you have to throw the bike away, and if they're going to
Source: assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com
World Wars
fall, they will fall," said a US military mentor who spoke on condition of anonymity. Ziankahn faces some resistance from former soldiers. In the dimly lit rooms of an office in central Monrovia once occupied by Liberian military trainers, disgruntled former
members of the AFL and other security agencies. Widows of former soldiers say they have not received promised compensation, and police officers and former AFL squad say they were unfairly dismissed and owed back wages. Most of the soldiers in the disbanded AFL, which is at the end of the war
had about 13,000 members, was forced to retire. They received a one-time payment of $550. "We're doing well here, but this is over more than seven years, and after a while you have to throw the bike away, and if it's going to crash, it's going to crash," said one U.S. military mentor who spoke on condition of anonymity.
During the first months of the conflict, the NPFL was disorganized and poorly armed, and its ranks used this as an opportunity to take revenge on ethnic groups favored by the Doe regime. But the government's attacks on civilians drove young people into the ranks of the NPFL and it grew stronger.
Taylor soon separated from his former ally Prince Johnson, and also killed many educated and experienced political figures who joined his camp, leaving no moderate alternatives to his rule.[3] Among those killed was Jackson F. Doe, who many believed had won the presidential election against President Doe five years earlier.
In July 1990, both Taylor and Johnson independently laid siege to Monrovia, causing some of the fiercest fighting of the war and ending with Doe's execution. Not all US-sponsored military training missions in Africa have produced positive results.
Amadou Haya Sanogo, a Malian army captain who received military training in the United States, led a group of soldiers that overthrew the country's democratically elected president in 2012. The LFF was renamed the Armed Forces of Liberia under the amended National Defense Act of 1956,[13] although other
sources say 1962,[14] which appears to have been the date when the ground forces became the Liberian National Guard.[15] Since that period, the Armed Forces of Liberia have consisted of the Liberian National Guard, the Liberian Militia, the apparent structure of which is shown below, and the Liberian Coast Guard.
Until 1980, all able-bodied males between the ages of 16 and 45 were required by law to serve in the militia, although this provision was not enforced.[16] From 1945 to 1964, almost all officers were university graduates.[11]
Source: static01.nyt.com
From 1951, there was a US military mission based in Liberia to help train the AFL. The Reserve Officers' Training Corps was established in 1956 with units at the University of Liberia in Monrovia and the Booker Washington Institute in Kakata.
By 1978, the program had changed to the Army Student Training Program (ASTP) and had a total of 46 students at the University of Liberia, the Booker Washington Institute, and three smaller institutions.[12] However, it was not until the late 1960s that the Tubman Military Academy was established in Todee, in upper Montserrado County, as an officer training facility.[11]
Ziankahn says atrocities committed by the military during the war - his cousin, for example, was killed after being captured by rebels from the Liberian Peace Council, the AFL's proxy force - are a thing of the past.
Arguing that the military can be a force for good, Ziankahn talks about the role of soldiers in Plato's "Republic" and quotes the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. As a result of the civil war, all aircraft, equipment, materiel and facilities belonging to the Liberian Air Force were severely damaged, rendering the force inoperative.[41]
During the Civil War, the Taylor government made a number of arrangements for air support; an apparently inoperable Mil Mi-2 and a Mil Mi-8, one with anti-terrorist unit markings, could be seen at Spriggs Payne Airport in central Monrovia in mid-2005, clearly a hangover from the war.
During Taylor's era, the navy consisted of a few small patrol vessels. However, on land, sources from the late 1990s and 2005 indicate that the navy included the 2nd Naval District, Buchanan, the 3rd Naval District, Greenville, and the 4th Naval District, Harper.[60]
34 years ago, behind the walls of this barracks, on a stretch of sand next to the Atlantic Ocean, 13 top state officials were tied to posts and sprayed with machine gun fire by soldiers who carried out a coup d'état.
President William Tolbert was assassinated in the executive mansion. The executions precipitated a decline in violence within the military, and it was considered a warring faction during the civil war, which claimed more than 250,000 lives.
After the war, the army was disbanded. A military mentor expressed concern about the leadership in the Ministry of Defense and the "lack of incentives" for soldiers. He also highlighted the huge pay gap between political leaders in the Ministry of Defense and soldiers on the ground.
Source: static.dw.com
Officials within the AFL have addressed concerns about corruption in the department. And there are questions about the US strategy for rebuilding the Liberian military. A 2010 study found that DynCorp's military training program failed to train Liberians in "basic infantry skills, such as the proper use of security patrols, noise and light discipline" and other techniques.
According to the study, DynCorp bought the wrong kind of equipment and overspent on subcontractor wages, international law training and other programs. But observers say training has improved with the arrival of American military mentors. When civil war broke out in 1989, the US denied a special relationship and any obligation to intervene.
Liberia's low priority in the post-Cold War world was not enough to justify military intervention to nip the civil war in the bud. This approach has remained firm until now, although the United States has remained diplomatically active and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid and assistance to West African peacekeepers.
The crisis required the United States to maintain naval and naval forces at sea for long periods (1990 and 1996) and conduct several non-combatant evacuation operations (NEOs). Other NEOs may be needed unless the US either intervenes to end the chaos or closes its diplomatic mission.
Two battalions and supporting units underwent training and preparation for an evaluation exercise, the US Army Modified Readiness Evaluation Program (ARTEP),[86] held in late 2009. When declared operational, the 23rd Infantry Brigade was to command a colonel with a headquarters of 113 men.
Support units would include a band platoon (40 members), an engineer company (220 soldiers), a brigade training unit (162 soldiers, now renamed the Armed Forces Training Command, located at Camp Ware under Major Wleh),[87] and military police company (105 strong).[88]
The force operates under slightly modified United States military practices and uses American doctrine.[88] After years of fighting and trying to exclude Charles Taylor from any political solution, a national election was finally held, including Taylor as a candidate.
Many hoped that Taylor's strong hand would bring stability to the country, and in 1997 Taylor became the twenty-second president of Liberia with a whopping 75% of the vote. "...Military discipline was an early casualty of the coup. Mutiny was a matter for the ranks, and one of the first instructions broadcast over the radio ordered soldiers to disobey their officers. More than four years later, according to observers, the unwillingness of most officers to impose discipline
it was combined with the reluctance of more than a few soldiers to accept it."[27] A military mentor expressed concern about leadership in the Ministry of Defense and the "lack of incentives" for soldiers. He also highlighted the huge pay gap between political leaders in the Ministry of Defense and soldiers on the ground.
Source: upload.wikimedia.org
Officials within the AFL have addressed concerns about corruption in the department. The United States and Liberia have a long-standing special relationship. Although some Liberians placed great value on this relationship, successive US administrations claimed that such a relationship did not exist.
Liberia was an ally of the United States during the Cold War and a facilitator of covert operations against Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi in the 1980s. By 1 March 2005, more than a year after the end of the war, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) had disarmed and demobilized 103,018 people[62] who claimed to have fought for former President Charles Taylor or two rebel groups, the Liberians
United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) or Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). That year most of the ex-AFL elements were concentrated in the Schieffin camp.[51] Former AFL personnel, including those from the Navy and Air Force, were slowly retired with pensions provided by the MND and international partners from a number of international donors.[63]
Liberia is widely seen as one of Africa's leading "failed states" where the central government has stopped providing essential security and services. In the absence of state authority, the territory has effectively been ceded to warring militia groups that operate lawlessly and with impunity for crimes against the civilian population.
In addition, conflict erupted again in mid-2000 following cross-border incursions by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group. LURD consists of various militias opposed to President Charles Taylor; they are driven as much by economic ruin as by any clearly defined political agenda.
There is an oscillating stalemate on the ground. The rebels occasionally advance towards Monrovia, while at other times Government of Liberia (GOL) forces push the rebels inland and into safe havens in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Tens of thousands of battle-related deaths have occurred. In 2005, the United States and the Liberian government called for the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) to be rebuilt from scratch. The United States has spent more than $300 million on the effort and relies on the private military company DynCorp to recruit and train Liberian soldiers.
In 2009, DynCorp's contract expired and US military mentors took over. A third branch of the armed forces, the Liberian National Coast Guard, was established in 1959.[27] The Coast Guard, during Tubman's period, was little more than a few sometimes unserviceable patrol aircraft with poorly trained personnel, although its training improved in the 1980s to the point where it was considered the best trained of the armed forces.[27]
] When William Tolbert replaced longtime William Tubman as president in 1971, he retired more than 400 aging soldiers.[29] Sawyer comments that "retired soldiers were replaced by young recruits from urban areas, many of whom were then poorly trained at Tubman Military Academy. This development dramatically changed the character of the army in Liberia."
(Samuel Doe was among this group.) Amos Sawyer also comments that "the recruitment of such individuals into the army was part of Tolbert's effort to replace old, illiterate men with younger, literate men capable of absorbing technical and professional training."[30]
liberian military ranks, armed forces of liberia, liberian military equipment, liberia military bases, second liberian civil war, liberia defense minister, liberia military size, liberia army