The economy of Sierra Leone is that of a least developed country with a GDP of approximately 1.9 billion USD in 2009. Since the end of the civil war in 2002 the economy is gradually recovering with a GDP growth rate between 4 and 7%. In 2008 its GDP in PPP ranked between 147th and 153rd (CIA) largest in the world.
There are a number of systems of transport in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, which possess road, rail, air and water infrastructure, including a network of highways and several airports.
The government of Sierra Leone is the governing authority of the Republic of Sierra Leone, as established by the Sierra Leone Constitution. The Sierra Leone government is divided into three branches: the executive, legislative and the judicial. The seat of government of Sierra Leone is in the capital Freetown.
Blood diamonds is a term used for a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, or a warlord's activity. The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas, or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area. Diamonds mined during the recent civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea Bissau have been given the label. The term conflict resource refers to analogous situations involving other natural resources.
Pepel is a coastal town in the Port Loko District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone.
Koidu Town is the capital and largest city of the diamond-rich Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The population of Koidu Town is 124,662 based on the 2015 Sierra Leone Census. Koidu Town is the fifth largest city in Sierra Leone by population, after Freetown, Kenema, Bo and Makeni. Koidu Town is a major urban, business, commercial and diamond trade center. Koidu Town lies approximately 270 miles east of Freetown, and about 54 miles north of Kenema.
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.
Articles related to Sierra Leone include:
Titanium mining in Africa has been beset by environmental problems due to the polluting nature of processing rutile, a principal titanium ore. Titanium production in Africa includes the following principal countries and companies.
Tongo, also known as Tongoma, is a diamond mining town and the second largest city in Kenema District, located in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Tongo is about twenty seven miles to Kenema. The population of the 60-sq.-mile city is 44,376.
Iluka Resources is an Australian-based resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development, operations and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxide-derived rutile and synthetic rutile globally. Iluka mines heavy mineral sands and separates the concentrate into its individual mineral constituents rutile, ilmenite, and zircon. Some of the ilmenite is then processed into synthetic rutile.
Jamil Sahid Mohamed Khalil was a Sierra Leonean-Lebanese businessman, diamonds and commodities trader. He attained prominence in the diamond industry across Africa and Antwerp and became an influential figure in the politics of Sierra Leone through his close association with President Siaka Stevens.
Jamil also came to dominate other business sectors including fisheries, tourism construction and aviation.
The Sierra Leone Police (SLP) is the national police force of the Republic of Sierra Leone, that is primarily responsible for law enforcement and crime investigation throughout Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Police is part undet the jurisdiction of the Sierra Leone Ministry of Internal Affairs, a cabinet ministry in the Government of Sierra Leone.
Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray is a Sierra Leonean politician, businessman, who is currently Sierra Leone Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources. He is also the deputy leader of the All People's Congress (APC) party.
Sierra Leone is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking within the country is more prevalent than transnational trafficking and the majority of victims are children. Within the country, women and children are trafficked from rural provinces to towns and mining areas for domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, and forced labor in diamond mines, petty trading, petty crime, and for forced begging. Women and children may also be trafficked for forced labor in agriculture and the fishing industry. Transnationally, Sierra Leonean women and children are trafficked to other West African countries, notably Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, and The Gambia for the same purposes listed above and to North Africa, the Middle East, and Western Europe for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. Sierra Leone is a destination country for children trafficked from Nigeria and possibly from Liberia and Guinea for forced begging, forced labor in mines and as porters, and for sexual exploitation. There have also been cases of children trafficked from refugee communities in Sierra Leone.
There are 84 kilometres of railway in Sierra Leone, all of which is private and of a narrow gauge, 1,067 mm.
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.
The Ministry of Mineral Resources (MMR) Sierra Leone is located on the 5th Floor Youyi Building, Brookfields, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Further to this the MMR Geological Surveys Department can be found at the New England estate, also in Freetown. The Ministry also supports a network of Regional Office in Makeni, Bo, Kenema and Kono, each headed by a Government Mines Engineer.
Bumpe is a small town in Bo District in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. As of 2013 it had an estimated population of 16,123. The town is located south-west of Bo.
The Sierra Leone Diamond is a 709-carat, alluvial diamond found in 2017 by workers hired by Pastor Emmanuel Momoh in river sediment in Koryardu village, Kono district, Sierra Leone. It has since been renamed The Peace Diamond.
