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Assignment: The Zogos of Liberia

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The Zogos of Liberia

31/10/2019 GMT

BBC World Service - Assignment, The Zogos of Liberia

Inside the lives of Liberia’s forgotten child soldiers

The lives of Liberia’s forgotten child soldiers – known as ‘Zogos’ they are jobless, homeless and addicted to drugs.

When Miatta was 14 years old, armed rebels stormed into her classroom and forcibly recruited her and her classmates.  They were trained to use machine guns and then sent to the front line to fight in Liberia’s devastating civil war.
 
Nineteen years later, Miatta is what many Liberians would call a Zogo.  The Zogos are Liberia’s underclass: jobless, homeless and addicted to drugs.  They’re a menace on the streets of the capital, Monrovia, where many make their living by snatching purses and phones from passers-by. 
 
In this Assignment, Lucy Ash follows a projects aiming to rehabilitate hundreds of Liberia’s Zogos – including Miatta. 
 
Producer: Josephine Casserly


(Image: A mural in the Liberian capital called Female Zogos of Monrovia. They are sitting on gravestones because many are homeless and seek refuge in cemeteries. Credit: James Giahyue)

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