Senior Liberian officials hit with U.S. financial sanctions

By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has imposed sanctions on three high-ranking Liberian government officials for engaging in alleged public corruption. President George Weah’s chief of staff, the nation’s chief prosecutor and the current managing director of the national port authority have been designated by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions. Liberia was battered by back-to-back civil wars that left 200,000 people dead and displaced half of the country’s population. Public corruption has been a persistent problem, which has prevented economic development in an otherwise resourceful country of more than 5 million people.