Liberia’s warlord-turned-senator Prince Johnson dies at 72

Associated Press

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia’s former warlord and senator Prince Johnson, one of the main actors in the country’s horrific civil wars, died at the age of 72. Johnson, who once videotaped himself drinking Budweiser as his men cut off the ears of a former president, was elected senator in 2006 and remained active in politics after the civil war ended. Civil wars in Liberia, characterized by widespread mass killings, torture and sexual violence, killed an estimated 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003. Johnson was named as “most notorious perpetrators” by Liberia’s post-war truth and reconciliation committee, and was accused of killing, extortion, massacre, torture and rape among other charges.