The Killing of Five American Nuns in Liberia
During the height of Operation Octopus, five American Catholic nuns — Sisters Mary Joel Kolmer, Kathleen McGuire, Agnes Mueller, Shirley Kolmer, and Barbara Ann Muttra — were murdered by armed fighters in Gardnersville, a suburb of Monrovia. They had refused to abandon their mission of caring for local residents and children amid chaos and gunfire. […]
Operation Octopus – The Siege of Monrovia
In October 1992, rebel forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) launched Operation Octopus — a coordinated assault on Monrovia aimed at toppling the Interim Government of National Unity. For months, the capital became a battlefield. Mortar fire, shelling, and close-quarter combat killed thousands of civilians and forced tens of thousands to […]