Liberia is selling itself slice by slice nine years after a terrible civil conflict finally came to an end, offering valuable resources to the highest bidder even though that could kindle tension among a population that often feels it is being sold out.

The chairman of the Liberia Land Commission, Othello Brandy, says that 57.5 percent of the nation's territory has been allotted via concessions, for a total of 5.6 million hectares, of which a little more than one million hectares represented agricultural land.

Alfred Brownell, a lawyer who founded the non-governmental organization Green Advocates estimates that at least 120 foreign companies have signed concessions contracts in Liberia.

"Over the last six years it has been an avalanche," Brownell said, before explaining that Liberia, a western Africa country that suffered 15 years of war from 1989 to 2003, lacked the expertise to develop by itself.

"There is no capacity of absorption in Liberia, no skills, no trained people," Brownell noted. "We will depend on foreign experts."

The lawyer defends Liberian communities that are affected by palm oil plantations and warned: "If we get back to war, it will be on land."

The United Nations still maintains a peacekeeping force in Liberia and a panel warned in early December of the potential for land conflicts.

AFP