Prince Johnson: Liberian Warlord-Turned Senator Dies At 72

Former Liberian warlord and leader of the former Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), Senator Prince Johnson, has passed aged 72.

Johnson, a key player in the 1989-2003 civil wars, aligned with Charles Taylor’s NPFL rebel group who launched the 1989 Civil War to overthrow President Samuel Doe.

Following a fallout with Taylor, Johnson formed an NPFL splinter group, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), which reportedly captured, tortured and executed Doe in 1990.

Johnson was forced into exile after the INPFL was disbanded in 1992, where he reconciled with the Doe family before returning to Liberia in 2004 after the Second Liberian Civil War.

He was then elected to the Senate of Liberia in 2005 and was re-elected in 2014 and 2023. He founded a political party, the National Union for Democratic Progress (NUDP) in 2010, before being expelled from it in 2014.

“Senator Johnson was the longest-serving senator,” said Siaffa Jallah, deputy director of press at the Senate.

“Yes, we lost him this morning. He passed away at Hope for Women (health centre)”, Wilfred Bangura, a senior official in Prince Johnson’s Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction party, told AFP.

Johnson, who hailed from the northern region of Nimba, in the east-central interior of the country, later became a preacher in an evangelical church where he enjoyed wide popularity.

Prince Johnson: Liberian Warlord-Turned Senator Dies At 72 is first published on The Whistler Newspaper