Liberian President George Weah to seek re-election

Liberian President and former international football star George Weah announced that he would run for a second term in October, rejecting mounting criticism that he is out of touch with a population facing steep price rises and food shortages.

The election is slated for October 10 in the West African country, which is still recovering from back-to-back civil wars between 1989 and 2003 that killed some 250,000 people.

"My fellow citizens, I will be coming to you shortly to ask you to renew... for a second time the mandate that you gave me six years ago," Weah said in his annual State of the Nation address.

Weah pledged "a mandate of opportunity, a mandate for transformation, a mandate for development".

He also defended his first term, saying: "Let me assure you that the state of our nation is strong. The state of our nation is stable... The state of our nation is peaceful and secure. We intend to keep it this way."

It was also ravaged by an Ebola pandemic and the nation of five million people, one of the poorest in the world, has been hit hard by the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

About half its people live on less than $1.90 a day, according to World Bank figures.

Weah came to power in 2018 after winning an October 2017 election, capitalising on his iconic status acquired after becoming the first and only African to win football's most prestigious individual award, the Ballon d'Or, in 1995.