Nearly two decades after the guns fell silent in Liberia, a man accused of ordering killings, torture, and the conscription of children during that nation's long civil wars has been returned to his homeland from the United States. Amos Sheik Massaquoi, 55, who served as chief bodyguard to a commander in Charles Taylor's rebel movement, entered America legally in 2006 and quietly remained long after his welcome expired — until federal investigators, piece by piece, reconstructed his past. His deportation on August 11 is part of a quiet but persistent reckoning: the recognition that geography is
ICE deports ex-Liberian warlord accused of torture and child soldier recruitment
Massaquoi is believed to have ordered and participated in killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, forced labor, and recruitment of child soldiers during Liberia's civil wars, which killed approximately 250,000 people.