Undocumented Burkinabe, Land Grabs, and a Broken Justice System: JALG Flags Crisis in Grand Gedeh

By: Akoi M.  Baysah,  Jr.

As the forest canopy thins and tensions rise across southeastern Liberia,
Justice Advocates Law Group (JALG) is pointing fingers at government inaction,
warning that Grand Gedeh County is becoming a hotspot for unregulated
migration, land conflicts, and institutional neglect.

In a scathing critique released this week, JALG said thousands of
undocumented Burkinabe migrants have, for years, crossed into Grand Gedeh and
surrounding counties unchecked—clearing community, private, and reserved
forests with impunity.

The group says the migrants, primarily involved in cocoa farming, now
outnumber locals in several areas, and are occupying land without legal
frameworks or benefit-sharing arrangements.

“Entire communities are being uprooted by avoidable land conflicts, and
state institutions are nowhere to be found,” said Cllr. P. Alphonsus Zeon,
Managing Partner of JALG.

“These migrants have no legal status. That means they can’t enter valid
agreements, they pay no taxes, and they destroy protected forests. The silence
of national agencies is deafening.”

JALG’s call comes amid rising reports of violent clashes involving locals,
Burkinabe farmers, and Forestry Development Authority (FDA) rangers. The
organization is demanding the Liberia Immigration Service, Ministry of Labor,
and Liberia Revenue Authority deploy mobile teams into rural communities, not
just county capitals to identify, profile, and regulate the migrant population.

But the Burkinabe issue is only part of a wider governance failure,
according to JALG.

In what may be seen as a damning reflection of Liberia’s decentralization
gap, the legal aid group says the government is effectively absent in rural
Grand Gedeh, where critical infrastructure and law enforcement are either weak
or non-existent.

Nowhere is this more apparent than at the Palace of Correction in Zwedru,
the region’s main prison. The facility, which houses over 300 inmates and
pre-trial detainees, has only one working hand pump and no electricity. More
dangerously, a collapsed section of the perimeter wall remains unrepaired months
after it caved in.

“If that prison wall is not fixed soon, we’re looking at the possibility of
mass escape—releasing accused and convicted criminals into communities already
dealing with land violence and insecurity,” JALG warned.

In a bid to fill the justice gap, JALG has entered into a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Grand Gedeh Freedom of Information Network (GEFOINET).

The two groups have pledged to work together to raise awareness on land
rights, human rights, and legal accountability. Their focus includes
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), women’s access to land, protection of the
accused, and monitoring of justice delivery.

Cllr. Nelson Garr, JALG’s Litigation Partner, said the partnership is aimed
at “reducing tensions by giving communities the tools to make informed
decisions and assert their rights.”

GEFOINET Coordinator Dixon Leabah echoed this, emphasizing the need to pool
resources in the absence of consistent government intervention. “What we’re
doing is trying to plug holes in a broken system,” he said.

As forestland disappears and community frustration grows, the real question
remains: How long will the Liberian government allow local rule of law to erode
under the pressure of unregulated migration, weak institutions, and delayed
justice?