Liberian former warlord Prince Johnson, who oversaw the brutal murder of former president Samuel Doe as civil wars rocked the country before later serving as a senator and political kingmaker, has died at the age of 72.

Prince Yormie Johnson, Liberian warlord-turned-politician, who became infamous for the 1990 footage of him sipping beer while the-then president was tortured nearby, has died at the age of 72.

Former Liberian warlord Prince Johnson, a key player in the country's back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003, died Thursday aged 72, officials from his party and the Senate told AFP.