Liberian President Joseph Boakai has announced plans to commission a national war memorial to honor victims of the country’s devastating civil wars, including peacekeepers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who lost their lives during the conflicts.
The pledge, delivered during Liberia’s 178th Independence Day celebrations at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia, comes just three weeks after Boakai issued a formal apology to victims on behalf of the Liberian state.
The civil wars, spanning from 1989 to 2003, claimed an estimated 250,000 lives, displaced millions, and left the nation’s infrastructure in ruins.
“This sacred monument will not only commemorate the fallen but will also serve as a call to conscience for generations to come, a powerful reminder that the peace we enjoy today was never free,” Boakai said.
“It was earned through courage, paid for in sacrifice, and must be preserved by unity.”
The memorial aligns with one of the 207 recommendations made by Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2009, which urged the construction of memorials across each county, including sites of massacres. Boakai also declared a national day of prayer to be observed this Wednesday, urging Liberians and residents “to seek God’s face… and renew our covenant for peace, unity, and a reconciled Liberia.”
Boakai’s recent actions—including his decision to establish an office for war and economic crimes courts—have drawn cautious praise from transitional justice advocates.
Frances Greaves, a veteran of the Liberian Women Mass Action for Peace movement, welcomed the memorial initiative as “a positive step” for reconciliation but cautioned: “It’s necessary that this whole thing is not something that will be like a quick impact. It should be something that will be thought properly… to yield the desired result.”
Hassan Bility, director of the Global Justice and Research Project, echoed concerns over funding. “Let’s NOT plan and promise what we can’t deliver,” he said via WhatsApp.
“The most urgent right now is the funding to the War and Economic Crimes Court. Donors aren’t going to give a dime if they do not see a genuine commitment from the Government of Liberia.”
The ceremony also marked the first time ECOWAS soldiers were formally honored for their peacekeeping role.
Heads of state and representatives from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Nigeria were presented with commemorative plaques.
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, a former peacekeeper in Liberia, lauded the country’s progress but warned, “Healing the past and building the future is not instant.
It is not achieved with slogans or treaties. It demands tenderness. It demands courage. It asks us to view the past not with bitterness, but with resolve.”
Boakai closed his address by emphasizing unity as Liberia’s foundation for the future.
“To move forward, we must first heal the divisions that threaten to pull us apart. Our development will not endure without reconciliation; our future cannot take root without unity. That is why this year’s theme—‘one people, one destiny, healing the past and building the future’—rings loud with such urgency.”
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