BY Shallon S. Gonlor
NIMBA COUNTY – Amid efforts to curtail violence against women and children in Liberia, yet another gruesome killing of a 25-year-old woman in Nengbehn Town, District #1, Nimba County.
The deceased identified as Yourg Cooper, 25, lifeless body was discovered lying in a pour of blood on her farm road over the weekend, after her neck was cut, something many believe resulted to her death. Pictorials from where (scene) her body was discovered show Yourg Cooper tied on a pole, neck cut, and stiffed several times.
In connection to the killing, the police in Nimba County have arrested and investigating three accused suspects including Levin Yasiah, 45 (boyfriend of the deceased), Lawrence Gono, 34, and Sampson Dolo, 38, respectively.
The suspects are currently detained as they undergo police investigation in Sanniquellie City, Nimba County.
While talking about the incident, some residents of the town averred that the deceased, a mother of six children left the town along with her kids to their coal farm, where she normally produce chat coal, a local business she do to feed her three kids.
They further detailed to reporters that, deceased Yourg Cooper, 25, while on her coal farm, about three hours walk from the town, she received a phone call from suspect Levin Yasiah, 45, (the deceased’s boyfriend) telling her that he wants to see her urgently on the main road, thus resulting to her gruesome murdered.
The death of the young woman brings to four, the number of women that have reportedly been killed by their fiancés in what is likely termed to be a domestic violence.
It can be recalled, in February 2023, Nimba County 8th Judicial Circuit Court sentenced a 33-year old-man identified as Ernest Gbarto to 80 years imprisonment for murdering his 33-year-old girlfriend in Sanniquellie City.
Ernest Gbatoe, the convict on the night of December 3 attacked his girlfriend with a machete and chop her head and other body parts over claims that she was in a love affair with another man for which she always refuses his sexual advances at night.
Also, early this year, a woman believed to be in her early 40s, was killed by her boyfriend at F2 Guest House in Pearson community, Ganta City, Nimba. Following said incident, there has been no arrest as to who committed the murder.
The Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Protection (MoGC&SP), over the weekend confirmed that it has recorded over 2,109 GBV cases beginning January 1st, to August 30, 2023 from across Liberia.
Of those cases, Montserrado (1223), Nimba (315), Lofa (237), and Grand Cape Mount County 1(83) reporting the highest number of cases this year. Gender Minister Sayde-Tarr, during last weekend news conference acknowledged that 68.5% or 1,446 cases account for rape, gang rape and sodomy affecting 68% of survivors under the age of 18 years.
As violence against women remains a burning issue across the globe, Liberia joins the world for the observance of the 16 Days of Activism, that is intrinsically intended to heighten GBV campaign. The campaign kickstarted on Saturday, November 25, 2023. It is a global campaign rooted in the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, advocating for an end to Gender-Based Violence.
