Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, informally Salone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea to the northeast. Sierra Leone has a tropical climate with a diverse environment ranging from savanna to rainforests, a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi) and 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 sixteen districts.. Sierra Leone is a constitutional Republic with a unicameral parliament, and a directly elected president.
Sierra Leone first became inhabited by indigenous African peoples at least 2,500 years ago.The Limba were the first tribe known to inhabit Sierra Leone. The dense tropical rainforest partially isolated the region from other West African cultures, and it became a refuge for peoples escaping violence and jihads. Sierra Leone was named by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, who mapped the region in 1462. The Freetown estuary provided a good natural harbour for ships to shelter and replenish drinking water, and gained more international attention as coastal and trans-Atlantic trade supplanted trans-Saharan trade.
Julius Maada Bio is a Sierra Leonean politician, and the current president of Sierra Leone since April 4, 2018. He is a retired Brigadier General in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military Head of State of Sierra Leone from January 16, 1996, to March 29, 1996 in a military Junta government. As the candidate of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party, Bio defeated Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress 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, fair and credible. Bio succeeded Ernest Bai Koroma as president. As the main opposition leader, Bio was a critic of his predecessor president Ernest Bai Koroma and his administration. As president, Bio has overturned most of the policies of Ernest Bai Koroma, whom he accuses of corruption.
Christopher Elnathan Okoro Cole, CMG OBE was a Sierra Leonean politician. He served as Governor-general and President of Sierra Leone for 1 day in 1971. Cole was appointed officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1965 for "Public services as minister without portfolio" and inducted as a companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1973.
Robert Thorpe was a judge and political figure in Upper Canada and was later chief justice of Sierra Leone.
Sir Francis Fleming was a British administrator who held appointments in eleven colonies.
Sir Henry Monck-Mason Moore was British Governor of Sierra Leone, Kenya and Ceylon.
Francis Misheck Minah was a Sierra Leonean statesman, lawyer and politician who served as First Vice President of Sierra Leone from 1985 to 1987 under President Siaka Stevens. An ethnic Mende from the Pujehun District, he became a member of the House of Representatives in 1967. He had previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Health, Minister of Trade and Industry and Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Boston King was a former American slave and Black Loyalist, who gained freedom from the British and settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. He later immigrated to Sierra Leone, where he helped found Freetown and became the first Methodist missionary to African indigenous people.
Thaddeus Barleycorn - Barber (1865–1948) was born on 1 July 1865 in the previous Spanish colony capital city of Santa Isabel on the island of Fernando Po in West Africa.
Alfred Paolo Conteh is a retired Major in the Sierra Leone Armed Forces who has been Defense Minister of Sierra Leone since October 2007. He was appointed by President Ernest Bai Koroma and was later confirmed by parliament. Conteh is the nephew of former President Joseph Saidu Momoh.
The Sierra Leone Anti-corruption Commission (ACC-SL) commonly known as ACC is an independent agency of the Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Government, that investigates and prosecutes corruption cases in Sierra Leone. The ACC is supervised by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Justice. The current Head of the ACC is Francis Ben Kaifala, who has been in office since June, 2018..
Frances Claudia Wright, OBE, was a prominent Sierra Leonean lawyer during the 20th century. Known as "West Africa's Portia", in 1941 Wright was the first Sierra Leonean woman to be called to the Bar in Great Britain and to practise law in Sierra Leone.
Sir William Brandford Griffith, CBE was a British legal writer and colonial judge who was the Chief Justice of the Gold Coast from 1895 to 1911.
The Supreme Court of Sierra Leone is the highest court in Sierra Leone. It has final jurisdiction in all civil, criminal, and constitutional cases within Sierra Leone, and its decisions cannot be appealed. The Supreme Court has the exclusive constitutional power to overturn ruling of lower courts within the jurisdiction of Sierra Leone. The Supreme Court, along with the Court of Appeals, High Court of Justice, and magistrate courts form the Judicial branch of the Government of Sierra Leone.
Robert Smith FRCSE (1840–1885), also known as Bob Smith, was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor who served as Assistant Colonial Surgeon of Sierra Leone during the late nineteenth century. Smith was the first African to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh after completing his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Francis Smith was a Sierra Leonean Puisne Judge in the Gold Coast. He was the second Sierra Leonean to qualify as a barrister after he passed the bar at Middle Temple on 26 January 1871.
Sir Samuel Rowe was a British doctor and colonial administrator who was twice governor of Sierra Leone, and also served as administrator of the Gambia, governor of the Gold Coast and governor-general of the West Africa settlements. He was known for his ability to form pro-British relationships with the local people. He was in favour of a vigorous programme of expansion from the coast into the interior in response to French activity in the Sahel region, at times in opposition to Colonial Office policy.
David John Francis is a Sierra Leonean politician, academic and author serving as Chief Minister of Sierra Leone since April 2018. He is the first person to hold the office of Chief Minister since it was abolished in 1978. He is widely seen as the most highly influential government official in Sierra Leone, after the president and the vice president.
