Liberia’s President, Joseph Boakai has appointed a woman defence minister to serve in acting capacity hours after protests by soldiers’ wives forced her predecessor to resign.
Geraldine George, a retired Brigadier-General would also be the country’s first woman to serve in that position, reports the BBC, after she was appointed a deputy for administration in the defence ministry.
Her appointment comes as Defence Minister, Prince Charles Johnson III resigned amid protest in the country’s barracks by women believed to be wives of service men.”
The women set up roadblocks made of kitchen utensils and makeshift supplies near the capital Monrovia and elsewhere in the country, forcing Boakai to cancel planned National Army Day celebrations on Monday, an AFP correspondent reported.
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They blamed Johnson for a reduction in the salaries of Liberian soldiers returning from peacekeeping missions in Mali as well as poor living conditions in the military barracks.
