Yearbook 2012
Liberia. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was re-elected president in November 2011 but was first recognized in January by the country’s largest opposition party, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC). The presidential election had been troubled and the opposition called on its supporters to boycott and made allegations of electoral fraud.
Johnson Sirleaf, who received great international attention in 2011 when she received the Nobel Peace Prize, was criticized during the year for both corruption and slanderous politics. Among other things, the president had given three of his sons high positions in the administration. In April, one of them, Robert Sirleaf, was appointed chairman of the national oil company Nocal.
In the spring, the verdict came in the attention-grabbing trial of the country’s former president, Charles Taylor, who was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity during the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone in 1991–2001. After several years of trial in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Taylor was sentenced in May to 50 years in prison for, among other things, crimes against humanity, murder, rape and exploitation of child soldiers. For security reasons, the trial was held at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Earlier in the spring, former rebel leader George Boley was also deported to Liberia from the United States, where he spent two years in prison, accused of recruiting and using children as soldiers during the civil war in Liberia in the mid-1990s.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Provides most commonly used acronyms and abbreviations for Liberia. Also includes location map, major cities, and country overview.
In June, Liberia closed its border with the eastern neighboring Ivory Coast after several UN soldiers and civilians were killed in an attack there. The assailants were reported to have had their base in Liberia. The information was confirmed, among other things, by a UN report describing how Ivorian militiamen and Liberian mercenaries were recruited and trained in Liberia to carry out attacks in the Ivory Coast. Among other things, these should have been aimed at harming the Ivorian government. In the same month, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the Liberian authorities for failing to investigate and prosecute these militiamen and mercenaries.
President Johnson Sirleaf, himself accused of corruption and questionable economic ties with the now convicted warlord Taylor, decided late last summer to shut down 46 government employees after refusing to account for their financial assets. Later in the fall, one of the other two peacekeepers in 2011, Leymah Gbowee, resigned as the leader of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission due to the brotherly politics of the country’s power layers, but also because she felt that the president had not done enough to combat widespread poverty. in the country.
In November, Johnson Sirleaf was rewarded with the French Grand Cross Award, awarded by the President of France, François Hollande, at the request of a French Order. Like the year before, when Johnson Sirleaf received the Peace Prize, she received the award for her work on women’s rights and for promoting peace, stability and development in Liberia.
Population 2012
According to countryaah, the population of Liberia in 2012 was 4,472,119, ranking number 125 in the world. The population growth rate was 2.820% yearly, and the population density was 46.4310 people per km2.
Hydrography
In accordance with the structure of the country and the quantity and pattern of rainfall, Liberia has relatively short but numerous, abundant and constant watercourses. Almost all of them are born in the border area with French Guinea and the Ivory Coast and descend straight, rapidly, in valleys that are initially narrow and deep, then wider and more open, interrupted by rapids and cataracts, as they pass from the internal plateau to the internal shelf and from this to the lower coastal road, where they become calmer, wider and deeper, however spreading in the height of the rainy season and swamping the soil everywhere for most of the year. Their mouth is almost always inaccessible due to the mouth bar. The rivers of Liberia have a long period of flood corresponding and subsequent to the time of the great rains, but, as in all watercourses of the equatorial zone, the difference between the maximum and minimum flow is never very strong. Although their mouth is not free and their course is frequently interrupted by rapids and cataracts, rivers still represent the only communication routes in a country where railways are completely lacking and ordinary roads are limited to the coastal area. In fact, they are mostly navigable, at least in parts and for small boats and dinghies, in the lower and even middle course: in the upper course they are crossed by small suspended or floating bridges built by the natives with lianas or tree trunks.. Although their mouth is not free and their course is frequently interrupted by rapids and cataracts, rivers still represent the only communication routes in a country where railways are completely lacking and ordinary roads are limited to the coastal area. In fact, they are mostly navigable, at least in parts and for small boats and dinghies, in the lower and even middle course: in the upper course they are crossed by small suspended or floating bridges built by the natives with lianas or tree trunks.. Although their mouth is not free and their course is frequently interrupted by rapids and cataracts, rivers still represent the only communication routes in a country where railways are completely lacking and ordinary roads are limited to the coastal area. In fact, they are mostly navigable, at least in parts and for small boats and dinghies, in the lower and even middle course: in the upper course they are crossed by small suspended or floating bridges built by the natives with lianas or tree trunks..
The most notable rivers of Liberia are therefore: the Mano, the Saint Paul, the Saint John, the Cestos, the Sanguin, the Sinoe and the Cavally. The Mano forms the border between Liberia and Sierra Leone for about two thirds of its course. The Saint Paul was born on the Mandingo plateau and flows entirely within the territory of the republic: it is navigable for a few tens of kilometers from the mouth. The Sanguin and the Sinoe originate in an almost unexplored region. Del Rio Cavally, well known for the adventurous history of its exploration, only the right bank belongs to Liberia, in the stretch where it marks the border with the Ivory Coast, and its tributary Doubé: its high course takes place in the territory of the Ivory Coast and its springs are perhaps found in that of French Guinea.