Kunti Kamara / Awaliho Soumaworo

Awaliho Soumaworo a.k.a. Kunti Kamara
Arrested in France (2018); released due to a procedural errror (2019)Re-arrested in France, January 10, 2020 (see below)

Kunti Kamara, whose real name is (might be) Awaliho Soumaworo, is a Liberian with Dutch nationality. He was arrested in France on September 4, 2018 for his alleged involvement in crimes committed during the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1996) while acting as a ULIMO-K commander. He is accused of human rights violations including torture, using child soldiers, murder, slavery, even cannibalism. 

More specifically, the 44-year-old Liberian Kunti Kamara, a former commander of ULIMO (United Movement of Liberia for Democracy) is suspected of involvement in abuses during the civil war in Liberia between 1992 and 1997. According to a testimony collected by the association Civitas Maxima, he would have opened the belly of a man with an axe in order to eat his heart with his men. The complaint also accuses him of enslaving people of an ethnicity different from his own and the murder of a woman considered a witch.


France seeks trial for Liberian accused of crimes against humanity
Justice Info – Fondation Hirondelle 
November 4, 2020
Ex-Rebel Commander Accused of War Crimes Rearrested in France
FrontPageAfrica, Monrovia, Liberia
January 15, 2020

Liberian war crimes suspect rearrested in France
Nordic Africa News
January 14, 2020 

Kunti K. back in pre-trial detention 
Kunti K., who was released from pre-trial detention in September 2019 due to a procedural error (see below), was arrested again on January 10, 2020 for violating the conditions placed on his release.
Kunti K. à nouveau placé en détention provisoire (scroll for French text)
Source: Civitas Maxima – January 10, 2020


September 2019, in an unexpected development: 
Early September 2019, Kunti Kamara, who was in pre-trial detention in Paris on suspicion of crimes against humanity and torture, was released due to a procedural error. The former ULIMO-K commander was placed under judicial supervision with the prohibition to leave the national territory (France). See the following articles:

An ex-colonel suspected of crimes against humanity released in Paris because of “a procedural error”
MBS News
September 7, 2019

French version:
Un ex-colonel soupçonné de crimes contre l’humanité libéré à Paris à cause d’«une erreur de procédure»
France Sputnik News
September 7, 2019

Liberia: Ex-Warlord Kunti K. Released from Detention Due to Procedural Error
FrontPageAfrica, Monrovia, Liberia
September 10, 2019

Kunti K. released due to a procedural error (English version)
Kunti K. remis en liberté à cause d’un vice de forme (French version – scroll)
Civitas Maxima, September 9, 2019


Articles related to his arrest:

Victims Group: Liberia collaborated with Foreign Government in War Crime Case for First Time
Liberia collaborated with French authorities in an investigation in Lofa County earlier this year in war crime case against Kunti Kamara, a former general of the Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO)
FrontPageAfrica, Monrovia, Liberia
June 12, 2019

Ex-ULIMO Commander Arrested in France for War Crimes in Liberia
FrontPageAfrica, Monrovia, Liberia
September 7, 2018

Un Libérien soupçonné de crime contre l’humanité arrêté à Bobigny
(translattion: A Liberian, suspected of crimes against humanity, was arrested in Bobigny (France)
Eric Pelletier, September 7, 2018