Rachel Gbenyon-Diggs Explained

Rachel Gbenyon-Diggs is a Liberian diplomat who served as the country's ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 1999. She played an important role in attempting to rebuild relations between the two countries in the aftermath of the First Liberian Civil War.

Career

Gbenyon-Diggs became ambassador in 1997, and presented her credentials on March 16, 1998.[1] [2] As Ambassador, Gbenyon-Diggs was considered a loyalist for the Charles Taylor government by the dissident diaspora publication The Perspective,[3] and wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post in response to an article about Liberia's involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War, which she dismissed as "false and unsubstantiated allegations".[4] Gbenyon-Diggs also led efforts to replace the chancery after the original fell into disrepair because of the civil war, negotiating a deal with the State Department to fund the new project using the back rent payments that were not paid by the American embassy in Monrovia during the war.[1] [5] She left the post in 1999.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Séphocle, Marilyn . https://books.google.com/books?id=54PNOFI3iYsC&pg=PA87 . Ambassador Rachel Gbenyon-Diggs of Liberia . 87–101 . Then, They Were Twelve: The Women of Washington's Embassy Row . 2000 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-275-96833-5 . en.
  2. Web site: 2021-01-20. Digest of Other White House Announcements - The American Presidency Project. www.presidency.ucsb.edu.
  3. Web site: 2021-01-20. Loyal Ambassador Resigns Amid Frustration And Lack Of Cooperation. www.theperspective.org.
  4. News: RUMORS ABOUT LIBERIA . en-US . Washington Post . 2021-01-20 . 0190-8286.
  5. News: When nations fail, outposts in limbo . en . Tampa Bay Times . 2021-01-20.