Forty-five years after being gunned down in a military coup and dumped in an unmarked grave, Liberia’s slain President William Tolbert has finally received a proper burial — in a powerful act of national reckoning.

The April 12, 1980 coup didn’t just topple Tolbert — it unleashed a wave of terror. Ten days later, 13 of his cabinet ministers were paraded before a sham court, stripped naked, tied to stakes on a Monrovia beach, and executed by firing squad. Their bodies were not found

In an emotional state funeral, President Joseph Boakai stood before 14 empty caskets draped in Liberia’s flag, calling this moment “an act of national conscience.”

“We cannot heal by forgetting,” Boakai declared, demanding his nation face its past with “truth, justice, and reconciliation” — words that hung heavy over a ceremony marking one of West Africa’s most notorious Cold War-era atrocities.