Land disputes threaten Liberia's peace

Disputes over land ownership and property boundaries are threatening to undermine Liberia’s fragile peace, according to findings from a six-month survey released today.

The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the European Union warned in a presentation that “there will remain a strong likelihood of reversion to violence” if such conflicts are not addressed.

Civil war and a series of coups between 1989 and 2003 left about 200,000 people dead in Liberia and displaced half the country’s population of three million.

Nearly 12,000 UN peacekeepers help maintain order in the West African country.

Boundary disputes were “the main source of conflict” cited by some 6,000 people interviewed across 46 of Liberia’s 64 electoral districts, according to the summary of the survey findings presented to journalists in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.