Sierra Leone,officially the Republic of Sierra Leone,colloquially Salone,is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi),Sierra Leone has a tropical climate,with diverse environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. The capital and largest city is Freetown. The country is divided into five administrative regions,which are subdivided into 16 districts.
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone,from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession,Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992.
Major Johnny Paul Koroma was the head of state of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998.
Julius Maada Wonie Bio is a Sierra Leonean politician,and the current president of Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. He is a retired brigadier general in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military head of state of Sierra Leone from 16 January 1996,to 29 March 1996,in a military junta government known as the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC). As the candidate of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP),Bio defeated Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress (APC) in the runoff vote of the 2018 Sierra Leone presidential election with 51.8% of the votes to Kamara's 48.2%. International and local observers declared the election free and fair.
Ernest Bai Koroma is a Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018.
Mohamed Yahya Sillah is a Sierra Leonean politician,journalist and human rights activist. He was active in the transition efforts from military to civilian rule in Sierra Leone. As the National Chairman of the National Alliance Democratic Party (NADP),he was an unsuccessful candidate in the 1996 Presidential elections.
Kono District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Koidu Town. Motema is the second most populous city in the district. The other major towns in the district include Yengema,Tombodu,Jaiama Nimikor and Sewafe. The district is the largest diamond producer in Sierra Leone. The population of Kono District is 505,767. Kono District borders Kenema District to the southwest,The Republic of Guinea to the east,Koinadugu District to the northeast and Kailahun District to the southeast. Kono District is divided into fourteen chiefdoms.
Fourah Bay is a neighbourhood in Freetown,Sierra Leone. It is located in the East end of Freetown.
Haja Afsatu Olayinka Ebishola Savage Kabba is a Sierra Leonean Oku politician and former Sierra Leone minister of Energy and Power. She served as a member of Parliament of Sierra Leone from the Western Area Urban District from 2002 to 2007.
Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray is a Sierra Leonean politician,businessman,who was former Sierra Leone minister of mines and mineral resources. He is also the deputy leader of the All People's Congress (APC) party.
Mandinka people of Sierra Leone is a major ethnic group in Sierra Leone and a branch of the Mandinka people of West Africa. Most Sierra Leonean Mandingo are the direct descendants of Mandinka settlers from Guinea,who settled in the north and eastern part of Sierra Leone,beginning in the late 1870s to the 1890s under the rule of prominent Mandinka Muslim cleric Samori Ture. Also later a significantly large population of Mandinka from Guinea migrated and settled in Eastern Sierra Leone and Northern Sierra Leone in the early to mid 20th century. The Mandingo people of Sierra Leone have a very close friendly and allied relationship with their neighbors the Mandingo people of Guinea and Liberia,as they share pretty much identical dialect of the Mandingo language,tradition,culture and food.
Alice Rosalyn Koroma was the mother of Sierra Leone's president,Ernest Bai Koroma,and a longtime primary school teacher in Makeni. She was a longtime member of the Wesleyan Church congregation in Makeni,and in the 1960s she was a member of the Makeni city council from the All People's Congress (APC) party. Koroma,whose political career stems back to the 1960s,"was a strong supporter" and "advocate of women's rights". She was very active in the political scene of Sierra Leone and was a former leader of the All People's Congress (APC) Women's Congress in Bombali District in the later half of the 1960s.
Sierra Leone is officially a secular state,although Islam and Christianity are the two main and dominant religions in the country. The constitution of Sierra Leone provides for freedom of religion and the Sierra Leone Government generally protects it. The Sierra Leone Government is constitutionally forbidden from establishing a state religion,though Muslim and Christian prayers are usually held in the country at the beginning of major political occasions,including presidential inauguration.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the second-largest sect of Islam in Sierra Leone,behind only Sunni Islam. The earliest history of the Community in Sierra Leone dates back to the early period of the Second Caliphate,when at least six people are said to have conveyed their adherence to the faith. The sect attained rapid growth in the country after the 1937 arrival of Nazir Ahmad Ali,the first permanent Ahmadi missionary in Sierra Leone. Recent estimates by Ahmadi community suggest that there are approximately 560,000 Ahmadi Muslims in Sierra Leone,which is about 9% of the country's total population. Sierra Leone has the largest percentage of Ahmadi Muslims by share of total population in the world.
Freetown Central Mosque is one of the two largest mosque in Sierra Leone. It is located in the capital Freetown. The chief imam of the Freetown central mosque is Sheikh Ahmad Tejan Sillah,who is also the spiritual leader of the United Council of Imams in Sierra Leone. The mosque also hosts various Islamic cultural events.
Mandingo Central Mosque is a large mosque located in Freetown,Sierra Leone. It is one of the largest mosque in Sierra Leone and is located in the neighborhood of Magazine Court in the East End of Freetown. The chief Imam of the Mandingo Central Mosque is Sheikh Alhaji Abubakarr Swarray.
Sierra Leone is home to about sixteen ethnic groups,each with its own language. In Sierra Leone,membership of an ethnic group often overlaps with a shared religious identity.
The Oku people or the Aku Marabout or Aku Mohammedans are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone and the Gambia,primarily the descendants of educated,liberated Yoruba people who were released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Liberated Africans or came as settlers in the mid-19th century.
Gibril Sesay was a Sierra Leonean diplomat and Muslim cleric.
Sheikh Alhaji Mohamed Sanusi Tejan was a revered Sierra Leonean Oku Sunni Muslim preacher,Islamic scholar,Islamic theologist,architect,and the former Chief Imam of the Jamiatul Atiq Masjid.
