Liberian senator and former warlord Prince Johnson died on Thursday at the age of 72, the Liberia Senate says.
The Senate, in a statement on Facebook, described his death as an “irreparable loss.” The Senate has suspended its Thursday plenary sitting to next Tuesday to mourn Johnson, according to TRT Afrika.
“May his contributions to our nation be remembered, and may his charitable legacy inspire future generations,” the Senate said.
Faction leader
Liberia’s post-war truth and reconciliation committee named Prince Johnson and seven others as leaders of factions during the country’s two civil wars, which raged from 1989 to 2003.
In June, Johnson co-signed a resolution that passed through parliament for suspected war criminals to face prosecution.
An executive order was later signed by former Liberian president Joseph Boakai to create a long-awaited war crimes court to deliver justice to the victims of the civil wars.
Johnson, although named on the list of “most notorious perpetrators” by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, said that he supported the resolution because his constituents needed justice.
While no one has been tried in Liberia, a handful of others have also been convicted of war crimes overseas, including former president Charles Taylor.
Political career
Johnson returned to Liberia in 2004 following the end of the Second Liberian Civil War and was elected to the Senate of Liberia in the 2005 Liberian general election.
He founded a political party, the National Union for Democratic Progress (NUDP), in 2010 before being expelled from it in 2014.
Johnson founded a new party, the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), in 2016.
He has since been re-elected to the Senate in 2014 and 2023. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for president in 2011 and 2017, respectively finishing in third and fourth place in the first round.
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