Sierra Leone, (/siˌɛrəliˈoʊn(i)/ⓘ, also UK: /siˌɛərə-/, US: /ˌsɪərə-/; Krio: Salone) officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Its land area is 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi). It has a tropical climate and environments ranging from savannas to rainforests. As of the 2023 census, Sierra Leone has a population of 8,908,040. Freetown is both its capital and its largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are further subdivided into 16 districts.
Sierra Leone's current territorial configuration was established in two phases: in 1808, the coastal Sierra Leone Colony was founded as a place to resettle returning Africans after the abolition of the slave trade; then in 1896, the inland Protectorate was created as a result of the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885. This led to the formal recognition of the territory as the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate. Sierra Leone attained independence from the United Kingdom in 1961 under the leadership of Prime Minister Sir Milton Margai of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). In 1971, under Prime Minister Siaka Stevens of the All People's Congress (APC), the country adopted a new constitution, transforming Sierra Leone into a presidential republic, with Stevens as the inaugural president. In 1978, Stevens declared the APC to be the sole legally recognized party. In 1985, he was succeeded by Joseph Saidu Momoh. Momoh's enactment of a new constitution in 1991 reintroduced a multi-party system. That same year, a protracted civil war broke out between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group. The conflict, characterized by multiple coups d'état, persisted for 11 years. Intervention by ECOMOG forces and later by the United Kingdom resulted in the defeat of the RUF in 2002, ushering in a period of relative stability. The two major political parties that remain are the APC and the SLPP.
Sierra Leone is a culturally diverse country, home to approximately 18 ethnic groups, with the Temne and Mende peoples being predominant. The Creole people, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean slaves and liberated Africans, constitute about 1.2% of the population. English is the official language, while Krio is the lingua franca, spoken by 97% of the population. The country is rich with natural resources, notably diamonds, gold, bauxite and aluminium. As of the most recent survey in 2019, 59.2% of the population is affected by multidimensional poverty and an additional 21.3% vulnerable to it. Sierra Leone maintains membership in several international organizations, including the United Nations, African Union, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Commonwealth of Nations, among others. (Full article...)
Born and raised in Makeni in northern Sierra Leone, Koroma spent more than 24 years working in the private insurance industry before entering politics in 2002. From 1988 to 2002, he was the managing director of the Reliance Insurance Trust Corporation (Ritcorp). (Full article...)
Image 20Sierra Leone electricity production by source (from Sierra Leone)
Image 21Sierra Leone map of Köppen climate classification (from Sierra Leone)
Image 22A mosque and a church in Sierra Leone (from Sierra Leone)
Image 23Sierra Leone's total population, from 1961 to 2013 (from Sierra Leone)
Image 24Sierra leone, sapi, olifante, 1490-1510 ca (from Sierra Leone)
Image 25Temne leader Bai Bureh seen here in 1898 after his surrender, sitting relaxed in his traditional dress with a handkerchief in his hands, while a Sierra Leonean West African Frontier Force soldier stands guard next to him (from Sierra Leone)
Image 26A school in Koindu destroyed during the Civil War; in total 1,270 primary schools were destroyed in the War. (from Sierra Leone)
Image 28Temne leader Bai Bureh seen here in 1898 after his surrender, sitting relaxed in his traditional dress with a handkerchief in his hands, while a Sierra Leonean West African Frontier Force soldier stands guard next to him (from Sierra Leone)
Image 35Isata Mahoi shown editing radio programmes in Talking Drum studio Freetown; she is also an actress in the Sierra Leone radio soap opera Atunda Ayenda (from Sierra Leone)
Image 37Isata Mahoi shown editing radio programmes in Talking Drum studio Freetown; she is also an actress in the Sierra Leone radio soap opera Atunda Ayenda (from Sierra Leone)
Image 38British West African Campaign troops in Freetown, 1914–1916. Published caption: "British expeditionary force preparing to embark at Freetown to attack the German Cameroons, the main object of the attack being the port of Duala. Auxiliary native troops were freely used in African warfare." (from Sierra Leone)
Image 40British West African Campaign troops in Freetown, 1914–1916. Published caption: "British expeditionary force preparing to embark at Freetown to attack the German Cameroons, the main object of the attack being the port of Duala. Auxiliary native troops were freely used in African warfare." (from Sierra Leone)
Image 43A farmer with his rice harvest in Sierra Leone. Two-thirds of Sierra Leone's population are directly involved in subsistence agriculture. (from Sierra Leone)
Image 51An APC political rally in the northern town of Kabala outside the home of supporters of the rival SLPP in 1968 (from Sierra Leone)
Image 52The Sierra Leone Supreme Court in the capital Freetown, the highest and most powerful court in the country (from Sierra Leone)
Image 53A farmer with his rice harvest in Sierra Leone. Two-thirds of Sierra Leone's population are directly involved in subsistence agriculture. (from Sierra Leone)
Image 54A school in Koindu destroyed during the Civil War; in total 1,270 primary schools were destroyed in the War. (from Sierra Leone)
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The United Kingdom began a military intervention in Sierra Leone on 7 May 2000 under the codename Operation Palliser. Although small numbers of British personnel had been deployed previously, Palliser was the first large-scale intervention by British forces in the Sierra Leone Civil War. In early May 2000, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)—one of the main parties to the civil war—advanced on the country's capital, Freetown, prompting the British government to dispatch an "Operational Reconnaissance and Liaison Team" (ORLT) to prepare to evacuate foreign citizens. On 6 May, the RUF blocked the road connecting Freetown to the country's main airport, Lungi. The next day, British soldiers began to secure the airport and other areas essential to an evacuation. The majority of those who wished to leave were evacuated within the first two days of the operation, but many chose to stay following the arrival of British forces.
After the effective completion of the evacuation, the mandate of the British forces began to expand. They assisted with the evacuation of besieged peacekeepers—including several British ceasefire observers—and began to assist the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and the Sierra Leone Army (SLA). Despite the mission expansion, it was not until 17 May that British soldiers came into direct contact with the RUF. The rebels attacked a British position near Lungi airport, but were forced to retreat after a series of firefights. On the same day, the RUF's leader, Foday Sankoh, was captured by Sierra Leonean forces, leaving the RUF in disarray. After deciding that the RUF would not disarm voluntarily, the British began training the SLA for a confrontation. During the training mission, a patrol returning from a visit to Jordanian peacekeepers was taken captive by a militia group known as the West Side Boys. Negotiations achieved the release of five of the eleven soldiers, and three weeks into the crisis, British special forces launched a mission codenamed Operation Barras, freeing the remaining six. The success of Operation Barras restored confidence in the British mission; one academic suggested that its failure would have forced the British government to withdraw all its forces from Sierra Leone. (Full article...)
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