Summary:
- Rape survivors in Liberia -- including children -- are being denied justice unless families pay unofficial fees despite laws guaranteeing free treatment and legal support.
- Mothers describe carrying bleeding children to hospitals and being turned away from courts, where clerks and public defenders request payments before cases can proceed.
- The revelations emerge as Liberia marks the UN global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, and expose what activists say is a justice system plagued by corruption, underfunding, and inaction, even as sexual violence cases rise.
As Liberia marks the global campaign known as 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, rape survivors say they are being turned away from courts and told to "bring your money first" before their cases can proceed. Experts say the justice system extorts victims instead of protecting them.
Across Montserrado County, New Narratives' reporting found a broken system that demands cash at every step--from police stations, to hospitals, to the courthouse. Survivors, including children said they were routinely denied help unless their families paid, despite Liberia's laws guaranteeing free medical treatment, police processing, and legal support in rape cases.
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On a recent afternoon at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia, N. arrived at the courthouse thinking she would finally get help for her eight-year-old daughter, whom she said, had been raped by a 15-year-old. She was still bleeding three days later. (FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is concealing the full names of victims to protect them from stigma.)
N. said she had already done what the system asked of her--reported the case to the local police station, taken her child for a medical examination, and even paid transport to bring a police officer and the suspect from Zone-5 to court because, she said, she was told she had to. By the time she walked into the court building, exhausted, N. expected the state to take over.
Instead, N. said the burden shifted back onto her. She said a woman gave her a piece of paper with the name listed as Attorney Yei Mi Dolopei and said she was the state appointed public defender. N. said the woman asked for $US5 for photocopying materials to proceed. N. said she handed over $LD700 ($US4)--the only cash she had.
Next, N. said, a court clerk asked for an additional $US10 to be sent to a personal account over mobile money to "process" the suspect's transfer. The account name was Kulee Mengistu according to the phone notification N. showed this reporter.
Finally, instead of receiving assistance, N. said she was told to leave the court and "go treat your child." N. said she left without a hearing date, without transport support, and without any clear assurance the case would continue.
Since then, N. said, her daughter's care has depended on community members and volunteers. The pair has been living in fear due to the threats her daughter reported. She said she no longer sleeps in her own house regularly because she fears retaliation.
A court official said N.'s experience violated multiple rules.
"No, no, that was wrong," said Counselor Isaac L. George Jr., director of the Justice Ministry's Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes Unit. "They shouldn't have taken one cent from her. That was wrong. It was unethical."
Even if the excuse was photocopying court materials, George rejected it outright: "We don't have any justification. It was wrong. That was absolutely wrong."
George said the matter has already been raised with the lawyer involved. "We want to make sure that we investigate why money was taken away from her when they shouldn't have done so," he stated. Asked whether consequences were possible if the allegations are proven, he replied: "They could be penalized."
Reached by phone Dolopei refused to respond to the allegations before deadline. A number attached to the mobile money account of Kulee Mengistu, that N. said was given to her by a man who said he was the court clerk, did not respond to calls and a text message seeking comment.
The next court day after this reporter reached out to George and the court officials, N. said she received a call inviting her to return to the courthouse.
Advocates said N's experience is illegal and blocks poor families from securing justice.
"What if you cannot afford it as a family? Does it mean you should not have access to justice because you didn't have twenty dollars?" said Aminata Kamara-Sneh, an activist with the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education Rights. She called N.'s experience as "very unprofessional," and warned that it turns police, hospitals, and even assigned lawyers into barriers instead of protectors.
N.'s case was one of many reported to Front Page Africa/New Narratives in the course of this investigation that had faced barriers in getting justice. In another recent incident, now under police investigation, a three-year-old girl from White Plains Township, was found naked, injured, and bleeding after going missing during a community gathering.
Her mother, M., said the child had been with her grandmother at a neighborhood graduation celebration. M. received a terrifying phone call in the early hours of Friday morning. "Your child is missing," her uncle told her.
The girl was asleep in the house where the party was taking place when she was carried away unnoticed. The next morning she was found naked lying beside the alleged perpetrator, M. said. She described the scene as devastating. "She was unconscious... she was bleeding." The child could not walk.
M. called the police. The adult male suspect was arrested at the scene, and the child was taken for emergency treatment. "Now, we are undergoing the treatment," M. said, and doctors told her only that the girl was "tampered with," meaning sexually abused, and an investigation to establish what exactly happened was continuing.
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Like N., M. said poverty has shaped what care her daughter received. She has relied on small help from others to keep her child in treatment.
"Everything I had on my own is finished," she said. "I was expecting my township people to call me... but since then, nobody has ever done that. She said she feels abandoned by the very authorities meant to protect families in crisis.
White Plains Commissioner Wilson Canaswah said the township was severely constrained, without resources needed to properly police the community. He conceded the township has just four police officers and no vehicles. "If you call them at night, they cannot come," he said.
At the November 25 launch of Liberia's 16 Days campaign at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex, Laura Golakeh, deputy gender minister, announced a surge of 20 percent in cases from 2023 to 2024 when 3,381 sexual and gender-based cases violence were reported. More than four in every five cases were rape according to the deputy minister.
"These numbers are a reminder of the urgency, not just to hear, but to act," the minister said.
But mothers interviewed for this story said they have seen little action--only mounting costs and official indifference.
The story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the "Investigating Liberia" project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The donor had no say in the story's content.
