Prince Johnson

Prince Yormie Johnson (6 July 1952 – 28 November 2024) was a Liberian warlord and politician, who served as a senator for Nimba County from 2006 to 2024. Once a rebel leader, Johnson played a prominent role in the First Liberian Civil War.

After previously serving as an officer in the Armed Forces of Liberia, Johnson allied himself with Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel group when it launched the First Liberian Civil War in 1989 to overthrow President Samuel Doe. Due to a rift with Taylor, Johnson soon formed an NPFL splinter group, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), which captured, tortured and executed Doe in 1990. Following continued clashes with Taylor and the pro-Doe ULIMO group, the INPFL was disbanded and Johnson was forced into exile in Nigeria in 1992. There he converted to Christianity and reconciled with the Doe family.

Johnson returned to Liberia in 2004 following the end of the Second Liberian Civil War. He was elected to the Senate of Liberia in the 2005 Liberian general election. He founded a political party, the National Union for Democratic Progress (NUDP) in 2010, before being expelled from it in 2014.

He founded a new party, Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) in 2016. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2014 and 2023. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for President in 2011 and 2017, respectively finishing in third and fourth place in the first round.

Johnson was born in Tapeta, Nimba County, in the east-central interior of the country, and was brought up by an uncle in the capital city of Monrovia. In 1971, while living in Monrovia, he joined the Liberian National Guard (LNG), which was transformed into the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) in the aftermath of Samuel Doe's 1980 overthrow of President William R. Tolbert.^{[citation needed]}

He rose to the rank of Lieutenant, receiving military training in both Liberia and the United States, where he was instructed in military police duties in South Carolina. A stern, often draconian, disciplinarian, he served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Thomas Quiwonkpa, the Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia, and accompanied him into exile in 1983, after Quiwonkpa was accused of plotting a coup against Doe.^{[citation needed]}

Johnson later allied with Charles Taylor as part of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), serving as the NPFL's Chief Training Officer. Taylor's fighters crossed the border from Ivory Coast and began operations in Liberia on Christmas Eve, 1989.

An internal power struggle resulted in Johnson breaking off from the Taylor-led NPFL and forming the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL). Despite intervention in the civil war by the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), INPFL forces captured most of Monrovia in the late summer of 1990.^{[citation needed]}