Prince Yormie Johnson, a former Liberian warlord, is dead.
Johnson, a key figure in the Liberian civil war, died in the early hours of Thursday at the age of 72 after suffering from high blood pressure.
“It is true that he died this morning,” family member Moses Ziah told Reuters.
The late Johnson, who was a senator between 2006 and 2024, was infamously known for killing Liberia’s President Samuel K. Doe in 1990.
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He was serving as head of the notorious rebel faction, the Independent National Patriotic Front.
In a now infamous video from 1990, Johnson was seen celebrating with cans of Budweiser and looking on as his fighters sliced Doe’s ear off with a knife before executing him.
The late warlord later said he regretted the murder and sought reconciliation with Doe’s family.
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He never faced trial even after the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission named him among those recommended for prosecution for war crimes, saying his group had committed rapes and killings.
An influential Nimba politician, who spent 18 years in the Liberian senate, Johnson was also a strong kingmaker in the country’s politics.
He threw his support behind former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2011 and endorsed George Weah in the run-off against Sirleaf’s ruling party successor, Joseph Boakai, in 2017.
However, he switched his support to Boakai in the 2023 election in which Boakai defeated Weah in a run-off.
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