Abdullah Dukuly

For many people, photographs of crazed child soldiers operating under the influence of drugs were amongst the defining images of Liberia’s civil war. These pictures no longer occupy the front pages of newspapers –- but the problem of drug addiction on the part of youthful combatants persists.

Public confidence in Liberia’s banks appears to be at a new low, with many people now opting to keep their money elsewhere -– some in foreign accounts. The latest blow to the banking sector comes with the liquidation of the Italian-owned Liberia Trading and Development Bank (Tradevco).

Liberia has developed a programme to disarm some 40 000 combatants whose future seems uncertain after 14 years of a brutal war. Analysts say the move seeks to help Liberia to put the war — that forced virtually all of the country’s 3,5-million people to flee for their lives — behind it and build a lasting peace.