Liberians protest the president’s absence and the country’s economic suffering

YOn Saturday, more than a thousand people participated in a protest against economic woes and President George Weah’s protracted absence from the nation in a suburb of Monrovia, Liberia.

 

Large-scale protests have occasionally occurred during Weah’s five years in office, but frustration with his administration’s handling of the economy has increased as Liberians deal with rising food and fuel prices connected to the Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic’s aftermath.

 

A coalition of Liberia’s four biggest opposition parties planned a rally for this past Saturday in Paynesville, but all but one, the Alternative National Congress (ANC), withdrew at the last minute due to internal disagreements.

 

Many of the demonstrators were sporting shirts bearing prints of Alexander Cummings, who is running against Weah for president of the ANC ahead of a 2023 election. Some people carried signs that said, ‘We are tired of suffering.’