Liberia: – In 2021, when ArcelorMittal Liberia was negotiating its third Mineral Development Agreement, Liberia witnessed one of the most aggressive misinformation attacks in its recent history. HPX and its close collaborators created and operated an online blog called Liberian Economy, using it to push propaganda, distort facts, and poison public opinion against the deal. The misinformation wave was so intense that Liberia ultimately lost the full benefits of the 2021 agreement, a setback that analysts still describe as one of the country’s most costly self-inflicted economic mistakes.
Today, as the new ArcelorMittal deal heads to the Legislature, the same pattern has returned. A new coordinated propaganda campaign has emerged, complete with leaked documents, sponsored online commentary, and false narratives designed to confuse the public. The structure, timing, and messaging mirror the 2021 playbook. The aim is simple: derail the AML agreement and protect the interests of HPX and Ivanhoe at Liberia’s expense.
Investigations from credible sources inside the Capitol reveal that some government insiders are now leaking draft concession documents directly to HPX-affiliated groups and Ivanhoe strategists. These insiders are not acting out of patriotism. They are part of a long-running network of foreign-aligned actors placed within key decision-making centers. Their objective is to weaken any deal that challenges HPX’s ambitions and to stall infrastructure partnerships that could reduce foreign dominance over Liberia’s iron ore corridor.
While the government is working under the AREST Agenda to attract over one billion dollars in new investment, these insiders are quietly working in reverse. They are feeding external players sensitive information, manipulating legislative debates, and seeding doubt in the public sphere. Their actions not only undermine the AML agreement. They weaken the credibility of the entire investment climate and threaten national development goals.
The AML deal offers close to two hundred million dollars in immediate signature fees and billions more in long-term rail and port expansion. It is a cornerstone of the government’s push to modernize infrastructure, open new economic corridors, and create thousands of jobs. Yet HPX’s local surrogates are pushing a ten-million-dollar rival proposal that brings little value, no large-scale infrastructure, and offers Liberia almost nothing in return.
This is not negotiation. It is national sabotage.
The danger is deeper than competing concessions. When foreign interests can plant loyalists inside a government and use them to leak sensitive documents, manipulate oversight mechanisms, and generate propaganda campaigns, it places a country’s economic security at risk. It allows foreign corporations to influence sovereign decisions, slow national progress, and steer the economy toward outcomes that favor them while harming local workers and communities.
The current misinformation wave is not simply a public debate. It is an organized effort to frustrate the AML deal so that HPX can maintain control over Liberia’s rail decision-making space. During the current period, coordinated talking points are already circulating online. Anonymous pages are being activated. Influencers are being paid to create false claims. Draft clauses from the concession are being uploaded without context to mislead readers. This is the same machinery that operated in 2021, now revived and operating with even more sophistication.
But Liberians are becoming more aware. Many citizens, civil society groups, and independent analysts now recognize the pattern of manipulation. They understand that these attacks go beyond policy disagreements. They are part of a foreign-financed strategy to block transformational investment and to keep Liberia dependent on outsiders who profit from chaos, confusion, and stalled negotiations.
The stakes are high. If insiders continue leaking information and coordinating with foreign companies to undermine national deals, Liberia risks losing billions in future investment, missing out on rail development opportunities, and delaying the economic reforms that the AREST Agenda promises.
Liberia stands at a crossroads. Either the country exposes and removes these internal saboteurs, or it continues to suffer losses engineered by those who place foreign interests above national prosperity. Our minerals, our railways, and our future cannot be controlled by companies hiding behind proxies and bloggers.
The country must act now to protect its billion-dollar horizon. Liberia will move forward, not backward. Our progress cannot be held hostage by foreign greed operating through local hands.
