Liberia Military - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Military and security forces

Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL): Army, Liberian Coast Guard, Air Wing (2022)

note: the AFL Air Wing was previously disbanded in 2005 and has been under redevelopment since 2019; the Liberian National Police and the Liberian Drug Enforcement Agency are under the Ministry of Justice

Military expenditures

0.7% of GDP (2021 est.)

0.5% of GDP (2020 est.)

0.6% of GDP (2019 est.) (approximately $25 million)

0.5% of GDP (2018 est.) (approximately $20 million)

0.4% of GDP (2017 est.) (approximately $19 million)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 2,000 active personnel (2022)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the military has a limited inventory; since 2010, it has received small quantities of equipment, including donations, from countries such as China and the US (2021)

Military service age and obligation

18-35 years of age for men and women for voluntary military service; no conscription (2022)

note: as of 2020, women made up less than 1% of the active military

Military deployments

160 Mali (MINUSMA) (May 2022)

Military - note

the first militia unit established for defense of the colony was raised in 1832; the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) traces its origins to the 1908 establishment of the Liberia Frontier Force, which became the Liberian National Guard in 1965; the AFL was established in 1970; at the end of the second civil war in 2003, military and police forces were disbanded and approximately 100,000 military, police, and rebel combatants were disarmed; the AFL began to rebuild in 2003 with US assistance and the first infantry battalion of the restructured AFL was re-activated in late 2007; a second battalion was added in 2008

the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was established in 2003 as a peacekeeping force; at its height, UNMIL was comprised of about 15,000 personnel, including more than 3,000 troops absorbed from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peacekeeping mission; Liberian forces reassumed full control of the country’s security in June of 2016, and the UNMIL mission was ended in 2018

 

Maritime threats

the International Maritime Bureau reports the territorial and offshore waters in the Niger Delta and Gulf of Guinea remain a very high risk for piracy and armed robbery of ships; in 2021, there were 34 reported incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea in the Gulf of Guinea region; although a significant decrease from the total number of 81 incidents in 2020, it included the one hijacking and three of five ships fired upon worldwide; while boarding and attempted boarding to steal valuables from ships and crews are the most common types of incidents, almost a third of all incidents involve a hijacking and/or kidnapping; in 2021, 57 crew members were kidnapped in seven separate incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, representing 100% of kidnappings worldwide; Nigerian pirates in particular are well armed and very aggressive, operating as far as 200 nm offshore; the Maritime Administration of the US Department of Transportation has issued a Maritime Advisory (2022-001 - Gulf of Guinea-Piracy/Armed Robbery/Kidnapping for Ransom) effective 4 January 2022, which states in part, "Piracy, armed robbery, and kidnapping for ransom continue to serve as significant threats to US-flagged vessels transiting or operating in the Gulf of Guinea"

NOTE: The information regarding Liberia on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Liberia 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Liberia 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.