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.
Foday Saybana Sankoh was the founder of the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which was supported by Charles Taylor-led NPFL in the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. An estimated 50,000 people were killed during the war, and over 500,000 people were displaced in neighboring countries.
Makeni is the largest city in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. The city is the capital of Bombali District, and is the economic center of the Northern Province. Makeni is the fifth largest city in Sierra Leone by population. The city of Makeni had a population of 80,840 in the 2004 census and a 2013 estimate of 112,428. Makeni lies approximately 137 kilometers east of Freetown. Makeni is home to the University of Makeni, the largest private university in Sierra Leone..
Moyamba District is the largest district in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, with a population of 318,064 in the 2015 census.
Bombali District is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Makeni, which is also the largest city in the north. Bombali District is one of the fourteen districts of Sierra Leone. Bombali is the second largest district in Sierra Leone by geographical area, after Koinadugu District, and is the second most populous district in the North, after Port Loko District. In the 2015 Sierra Leone national census, the population of Bombali district was 606,183. Other major towns in Bombali District include Kamabai, Karina and Binkolo.
Magburaka is the capital and largest city of Tonkolili District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Its population was 16,313 in the 2004 census. and a current estimate of 40,313. It is located at around 8°43′1″N11°56′36″W, along the Rokel River. Magburaka lies just about 26 miles (42 km) drive south-west of Makeni, the economic center of Northern Sierra Leone and about 80 miles (135 km) drive east of the country's capital Freetown. Magburaka is a trade center and is one of the main cities in Northern Sierra Leone.
Dr. John Albert Musselman Karefa-Smart was a Sierra Leonean politician, medical doctor and university professor. He served as the first Foreign Minister under Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister, Milton Margai. He was an ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church.
Tonkolili District is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Magburaka. The other major towns include Masingbi, Yele, Mile 91, Bumbuna, Yonibana, Matotoka. Mathora, Magbass and Masanga. Tonkolili District is home to the largest sugar factory in Sierra Leone, and one of the largest sugar factories in West Africa, that is located in the town of Magbass. Tonkolili District had a population of 530,776. The district occupies a total area of 7,003 km2 (2,704 sq mi) and comprises eleven chiefdoms.
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.
Port Loko District is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. It is the most populous District in the North and the second most populous District in Sierra Leone, after the Western Area Urban District. As of the 2015 census, Port Loko District has a population of 614,063. The district capital is the town of Port Loko and its largest city is Lunsar. The other major towns in the district include Masiaka, Rokupr, Pepel, Lungi and Gbinti.
Kenema District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Kenema, which is the second most populous city in Sierra Leone, after Freetown. Tongo is the second most populous city in the district. Other major towns in Kenema District include Blama and Yomboma. The district is the most populous district in the Eastern province with a population 609,873. Kenema District has an area of 6,053 km2 (2,337 sq mi) and comprises sixteen chiefdoms.
Articles related to Sierra Leone include:
Karamoh Kabba is a Sierra Leonean author, writer, novelist and journalist. He has written several accounts about the Sierra Leone civil war, such as A Mother’s Saga: An Account of the Rebel War in Sierra Leone and the self-published work Lion Mountain and Morquee: A Political Drama of Wish over Wisdom published by Sierra Leone Writers Series. He has published several short stories and verses of poems on the Web site, Sierra Leone Web.
Magburaka Government Secondary School for Boys is a government-sponsored secondary school based in Magburaka, in the Tonkolili District, Sierra Leone. The school is one of the oldest secondary schools in Sierra Leone. The Magburaka Government Secondary School for Boys has a history of producing some of Sierra Leone's most prominent people, including current Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma, minister of Education Minkailu Bah and writer, novelist and author Karamoh Kabba.
Railway stations in Sierra Leone include:
The mining industry of Sierra Leone accounted for 4.5 percent of the country's GDP in 2007 and minerals made up 79 percent of total export revenue with diamonds accounting for 46 percent of export revenue in 2008. The main minerals mined in Sierra Leone are diamonds, rutile, bauxite, gold, iron and limonite.
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.
As of 24 September 2012, a cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone had caused the deaths of 392 people. It was the country's largest outbreak of cholera since first reported in 1970 and the deadliest since the 1994–1995 cholera outbreak. The outbreak has also affected Guinea, which shares a reservoir near the coast. This was the largest cholera outbreak in Africa in 2012.
Healthcare in Sierra Leone is generally charged for and is provided by a mixture of government, private and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There are over 100 NGOs operating in the health care sector in Sierra Leone. The Ministry of Health and Sanitation is responsible for organizing health care and after the end of the civil war the ministry changed to a decentralized structure of health provision to try to increase its coverage.
An Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone occurred in 2014, along with the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Liberia. On March 18, 2014 Guinean health officials announce the outbreak of a mysterious hemorrhagic fever "which strikes like lightning." It was identified as Ebola virus disease and spread to Sierra Leone by May 2014. The disease is thought to have originated when a child in a bat-hunting family contracted the disease in Guinea in December 2013. Consumption of African bushmeat, including rats, bats, and monkeys, is commonplace in Sierra Leone and West Africa in general.
