[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General\_Butt\_Naked](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked)

The First Liberian Civil War began on 24 December 1989 when Charles Taylor, a former government official and commander of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel group, invaded Nimba County from the Ivory Coast to depose Doe. After intense fighting and atrocities committed by all sides, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia, a breakaway rebel group led by Prince Yormie Johnson, captured and murdered Doe on 9 September 1990. In May 1991, a group of Liberian politicians and AFL veterans who had fled to Sierra Leone, mostly Krahn or Mandinka, founded the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) rebel group to retake control of Liberia from the NPFL. By c. 1993, Blahyi had joined the ULIMO, which at the time was engaged in an offensive to capture Monrovia from NPFL forces. In January 1993, ULIMO fighters in Sierra Leone took advantage of fighting between the NPFL and ECOMOG peacekeepers to begin attacking the former.

As a ULIMO warlord, Blahyi formed his own militia of several dozen fighters known as the "Naked Base Commandos" or "Butt Naked Brigade", most of whom were children as young as nine. Operating around the Monrovia area with his unit, Blahyi became known for wearing only shoes and magic charms, and eventually adopted the nom de guerre "General Butt Naked". His fighters also followed his patterns of dress, which Blahyi, in line with his "distorted emulation of animist tradition", believed could make one immune to bullets. To fund his wartime activities and secure a steady supply of drugs for his fighters, Blahyi allegedly traded locally mined diamonds and gold to Mexican drug cartels in exchange for guns and cocaine. He conscripted many of his fighters, and according to some accounts laced the food he fed them with cocaine along with showing them Jean-Claude Van Damme films and "\[explaining\] to them that killing people was a game" in an effort to "uproot the fear of death".

During the conflict, Blahyi and his fighters perpetrated numerous atrocities, although the exact extent of the crimes they committed have been the subject of dispute. He has frequently discussed the alleged atrocities he perpetrated, which according to Blahyi included murders, cannibalism and human sacrifice. Blahyi has repeatedly estimated that the Naked Base Commandos were ultimately responsible for 20,000 deaths, a claim which has come under criticism; Mohammed Toure, a fellow Liberian warlord who personally witnessed him in combat, acknowledged that Blahyi was a "notorious killer" but argued that he "couldn't even reach one thousand \[deaths\]—it's not possible." Nicholai Lidow, an independent scholar who wrote his doctoral dissertation at Stanford University on Liberian rebel groups, stated in an interview with The New Yorker that as Blahyi commanded at most 40 fighters for roughly three years, it was unlikely that he was responsible for 10% of the war's death toll.

In late 1993 or 1994, ULIMO, partly due to ethnic tensions, split into two rival factions: ULIMO-J, which was led by Roosevelt Johnson, and ULIMO-K, which was under the command of G. V. Kromah. Blahyi supported ULIMO-J, which funded him and his fighters. On 6 April 1996, the NPFL and ULIMO-K, which had both allied with each other, launched an operation to arrest Johnson in his Monrovia residence, "leading to one of the most ferocious battles of the war".\[ Blahyi and other ULIMO-J warlords resisted the operation, and one bystander witnessed him standing atop a truck during the battle, holding an assault rifle with one hand and the severed genitals of a man in his other hand. A ceasefire ended the fighting after hundreds of people were killed.

Blahyi claimed to have received a vision of Jesus in July 1996, which he credited with ending his involvement in armed conflict. In his autobiography, he wrote that the incident occurred after he had murdered a three-year-old girl and cut out her heart: "When I looked back, I saw a man standing there... who told \[me\] 'Repent and live, or refuse and die.'" He left his unit, leaving his fighters to fend for themselves, and started sleeping in one of the pews of a local church. The church's pastor summoned his congregation, and together they prayed to God, requesting him to cure Blahyi of his "demonic powers". Blahyi subsequently went to see his superiors in ULIMO-J, handing over his weapons and charms and stating that "My new Commander is Jesus Christ."

After abandoning his unit, Blahyi began working as a bodyguard for a local bank official before becoming an evangelical street preacher, selling cassettes of his sermons on Monrovia's streets with the message of "If God can save me, He can save you, too". In 1997, the war ended, and Taylor won that year's presidential election, with one of his campaign slogans being "He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I will vote for him." Once in office, Taylor used the Liberian military to persecute his former wartime enemies, including Blahyi, who fled to Ghana in 1999 and settled in a refugee camp. In the camp, he learnt to read and write English, studying the Bible and delivering sermons. In 1999, he founded the "End Time Train Evangelistic Ministries". In August 2003, Taylor stepped down as president; his administration had been collapsing due to the Second Liberian Civil War that various anti-government rebel groups had waged since 1999, and Taylor's decision ended the conflict.

In 2007, Blahyi founded "Journeys Against Violence" (JAV), a non-governmental programme intended to rehabilitate veterans of the Naked Base Commandos and other Liberian militia units. As noted by The New Yorker, JAV was marked by nepotism; Blahyi's half-brother was employed as the programme's supervisor, his mother was employed as its cook and one of JAV's official drivers was Blahyi's cousin. At some point, JAV began renting a house in the Monrovia suburb of Chocolate City as a residence for those who had joined its programme, and a series of "Ten Commandments" were drawn up for them; these included abstaining from drugs, alcohol, sex and fighting along with participating in daily prayers. As of 2016, the official JAV residence consisted of three small bedrooms "crammed with bunk beds". Activities for the programme's enrollees have included driving lessons, farming and bricklaying. The number of enrollees was stated to be 18 in 2016, rising to 48 in 2017.

In January 2008, Blahyi returned to Monrovia and became the first former Liberian warlord to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which had been established by the Liberian government in May 2005 to investigate atrocities committed during both Liberian civil wars. Most of the former warlords who had been called on to testify by the commission, including Taylor and Prince Johnson, had refused to do so as the TRC lacked the authority to force any of them to testify. During Blahyi's testimony, which was broadcast live across Liberia on both television and radio, he recounted his alleged wartime actions and atrocities to the "enthralled" commission, which challenged few of his claims. A 2009 report published by the TRC recommended 38 people for prosecutorial amnesty, including Blahyi. As of 2016, most of the report's recommendations have not been implemented, and The New Yorker noted that such a decision is unpopular among the Liberian public.

The testimony, which quickly became front-page news in Liberia, resulted in Blahyi achieving global fame. The Liberian public's reaction to his testimony was mixed: while many condemned his actions and perceived his turn to street preaching and founding of JAV as a cynical attempt to avoid government prosecution, others forgave him either due to their Christian beliefs or because they thought that forgiveness was "the only way forward for the country". As the only warlord to speak openly about his wartime actions, Blahyi's public contrition "satisfied a deep need" and launched his career as a showman. In the aftermath of his testimony, he was interviewed by journalists around the world and featured in a 2010 Vice News travel documentary titled "The Vice Guide to Liberia", which has been viewed millions of times on YouTube. Several American evangelicals who viewed the documentary later contacted Blahyi and supplied funds to JAV, along with helping to publish his autobiography.

General Butt Naked (born 1971) is a Liberian preacher and former warlord who fought in the First Liberian Civil War, during which his troops, who were mostly children, committed human sacrifice and cannibalism. In July 1996, he converted to Christianity and became a street preacher.