Thousands gathered in northern Liberia on Saturday for the funeral of warlord-turned-politician Prince Johnson, a notorious face of the country?s brutal civil wars who died without facing trial.

Back-to-back conflicts devastated the small west African country from 1989 until 2003, claiming around 250,000 lives and resulting in massacres, mutilation, rape, cannibalism and the widespread use of child soldiers.

Johnson became infamous in 1990 after appearing in a video sipping beer and being fanned by a woman as he calmly watched his fighter slowly mutilate and torture president Samuel Doe to death.

The former rebel leader was identified as having the highest number of violations by any individual perpetrator during the gruesome wars, according to a 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.

It said his crimes spanned killing, extortion, massacre, destruction of property, forced recruitment, assault, abduction, torture, forced labour and rape.

Johnson went on to become a highly influential senator, acting as kingmaker in the last three presidential elections before his death in November aged 72.

Saturday?s burial marks the end of a five-day state funeral which saw his body displayed outside parliament in the capital Monrovia before being transported to his home county of Nimba.

Johnson?s supporters and government officials, including President Joseph Boakai and Vice President Jeremiah Koung, crowded the grounds of the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company in Ganta city on Saturday, an AFP journalist saw.

Some of the crowd hailing from Nimba donned traditional attire and daubed their faces with red and white chalk.

?The biggest tree has fallen?

Others wrapped their heads and carried sticks in the shape of guns, which they said symbolised Johnson?s warrior-like nature and depicted his role defending Nimba during the civil war.

?The biggest tree that we all depended on has fallen,? said 65-year-old Charles G. Wondor, a farmer from Nimba.

?We are thinking that we wouldn?t have anyone to replace him because the way he contributed to the county and to the people, we don?t think we can ever get anyone like him,? he added.

Johnson?s immediate family wore white, while another group of supporters ? all dressed in black with red hats ? beat drums, clapped, danced and sang.

The burial is due to take place at the nearby PYJ Polytechnic University, an institution founded and named after the late senator.

Despite being among eight warlords the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended be prosecuted for gross human rights violations, Johnson never faced justice as the recommendations were not implemented.

After initially allying with another warlord Charles Taylor, Liberia?s future president who was later convicted of crimes against humanity, Johnson broke away and was forced into exile in Nigeria in 1992, where he stayed for 12 years.

He returned to Liberia In 2004 with a message of peace and reconciliation, becoming a preacher in an evangelical church.

The father of 12 never expressed regret over his past actions.

?I have done nothing criminal? I fought to defend my country, my people who were led to the slaughterhouse, as if they were chickens and goats, by the Doe regime,? Johnson said while running for president in 2011, when he finished third with 11.4 percent of the votes.

In 2005, he became a senator for Nimba county, where he enjoyed widespread popularity from his constituents.

He was a long-standing and vocal opponent of the creation of a war crimes court ? claiming that such a move could destabilise the country. (Channels TV)

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