Liberia: The Devastation of West Point

West Point is an area of Monrovia, Liberia.  While the natural landscaping of the area could be made beautiful, instead it remains one of the worst slums in the world.  Smelling of feces and urine, West Point has been called “a giant outhouse”.  The beach and coastline is used as a place to relieve oneself and is filled with mounds of human feces and people can be found adding to these mounds at any given time.

            There are over 75,000 people living in these poor conditions and it is worsening.  Heaps of garbage are everywhere and about 97% of the structures are built without foundations.  As one can imagine the health conditions are extremely poor with high rates of tuberculosis and HIV infection.  There are an ever increasing mosquito population (due to the amount of stagnant raw sewage) which contributes to an increasing rate of malaria. 

           The raping of women and children is alarmingly common, often the rapists will even pay the parents of the child and the parents take the money and cover for the rapist. The gender-based violent mentality that was fostered during Liberia’s civil war is still strongly prevalent in the country, very much so in West Point. It is estimated that more than 75% of the women in Liberia have been a victim to rape and it is unknown the number of children who have also been traumatized by sexual violence. Even babies are not protected from rape and cannot be left alone.

            The common addiction to drugs like heroin and cocaine does not help the situation; in West Point even children take the drugs. Many women have turned to prostitution as a means of supporting themselves and this line of work is very common in West Bank.

           The high rate of disease, drugs, prostitution, violent crime and rape leave West Point looking like hell on earth. One might wonder what the UN and the government are doing about the situation. Not too much it seems. The UN workers that have been posted in Monrovia have even been accused of raping locals themselves.

            There are a few grassroots organizations that have been started such as the West Point Women’s Action Group organized by a group of women from the area in 2005. These women work very hard to make things to sell at market in order to raise money for the group’s basic costs. There are various other small institutions like some medical clinics and lawyers groups who also try to help those who have been raped deal with their trauma.

             I for one had no idea the state of affairs in this particular area of the world. I was under the impression that all was well since the war had ended. All is not well. Awareness needs to be raised about this situation and the state these people have been living in. Please see the links below for more information.