Jankuba Fofana, a former fighter and a frontline commander for the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy, has been arrested in London.
Authorities in London did not reveal the identity of suspect arrested by British police Thursday, but FrontPageAfrica has learned that the suspect has been indentified as Fofana, who was picked up on suspicion of war crimes relating to conflicts in Liberia between 1989 and 2003.
The LURD was a rebel group was active from 1999 until the resignation of Charles Taylor ended the second Liberian war in 2003. While the group formally dissolved after the war, the interpersonal linkages of the civil war era remain a key force in internal Liberian politics.
The 45-year-old man is accused of offences relating to the country’s first and second civil wars between 1989 and 2003, the Met Police said.
Officers from the Met’s War Crimes Team detained the man on Thursday.
The force said the suspect remained in custody and officers were searching an address in south-east London.
The man has been held on suspicion of war crimes contrary to Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001, according to Scotland Yard.
About 250,000 people died during the two civil wars in Liberia, from 1989-1996 and 1999-2003.
The country’s former president Charles Taylor was later jailed in the UK for committing war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
