A former Liberian warlord, Prince Yormie Johnson, who captured former President Samuel Doe, is dead.

Like Charles Taylor, who is serving a prison sentence, Johnson was a key player in the 1989-2003 Liberian civil war.

Officials from his party and the Senate confirmed his death on Thursday, saying that he died at the age of 72.

Johnson, who later became a Senator in Liberia, was exiled in Nigeria for 11 years, before returning to Liberia to join politics.

He would be remembered as a notorious warlord with memories of one of West Africa’s darkest chapters.

Johnson led a rebel group that fought President Samuel Doe in the late 1980s. His men captured the coup leader in 1990 and video-taped his interrogation and torture.

In the video, a terrified President Doe, bound to a chair, begged for his life as Johnson drank wine.
Unhappy with answers to his questions over what the then President had done with “the Liberian people’s money” he warned him: “Don’t fuck with me.”

Johnson lost his patience and ordered his men to cut the President’s ear. Johnson raised the ear to the camera and then put it in Doe’s mouth.