Bill Horace ( – June 21, 2020) was a Liberian fighter, a former member of the

National Patriotic Front of Liberia The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was a Liberian rebel group that initiated and participated in the First Liberian Civil War from 24 December 1989 – 2 August 1997. The NPFL emerged out of rising ethnic tensions and civil unrest du ...

(NPFL) and alleged

war criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

. He fled to Canada in 2002 and was killed in his home in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

in 2020.

Early life

Horace was born around 1976 in Buchanan, Liberia. At the age of 12 he fled Buchanan as the NPFL took over the area, he later joined the NPFL.

Liberian civil war

In the early 1990s, during the

First Liberian Civil War The First Liberian Civil War was the first of Second Liberian Civil War, two civil wars within the West African nation of Liberia which lasted between 1989 and 1997. President Samuel Doe's regime of totalitarianism and widespread Political cor ...

, Horace was a General in Charles Taylor's NPFL and was reported to have participated in or ordered massacres, executions,

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

s, and the recruitment of

child soldier Children in the military, including state armed forces, non-state armed groups, and other military organizations, may be trained for combat, assigned to support roles, such as cooks, porters/couriers, or messengers, or used for tactical adv ...

s, primarily in

Maryland County Maryland County is a county in the southeastern portion of Liberia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has two districts. Harper serves as the capital with the area of the county meas ...

. Many of these activities were documented in Liberia's

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

and the Commission's final report recommended that he face justice, but the recommendations of the Commission's report were never implemented. In 1993-1994 word of Horace's activities in

eventually reached Taylor, who sent a team to remove Horace, who then fled to the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Canada, death

Horace moved to Canada in 2002 and applied for

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

status, which was rejected in 2005, and also applied for

permanent residency Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with such l ...

. Through the 2010s he was investigated by the Canadian government for war crimes, stalling his immigration proceedings. He lived in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and then in

, where he was fatally shot in his home in a planned attack on June 21, 2020.

Investigation

In 2022, a 23-year-old suspect was charged with Horace's murder. BBC News reported on speculation that his killing was linked to activities in Liberia, but that Canadian police stated his death was presumed linked to a network of criminal fraudsters in Canada.

Family

Horace was married and lived with his two children, who were 4 and 9 years old when he was killed.

Early life

Liberian civil war

Canada, death

Investigation

Family

References

Further reading