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 national 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 280 miles east of Freetown, and about 60 miles north of Kenema.
The Civil Defense Forces (CDF) was a paramilitary organization that fought in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). It supported the elected government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah against the rebel groups Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). Much of the CDF was made up of the Kamajors group, which is part of the larger Mende ethnic group. The Kamajors believed in many magical ways of defending themselves, such as rituals to create bulletproof skin.
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.
Kailahun District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is the town of Kailahun. The second most populous city in the district is Segbwema. Other major towns in Kailahun District include Koindu, Pendembu and Daru. As of the 2015 census, the district had a population of 525,372. Kailahun District is subdivided into fourteen chiefdoms.
Kenema District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Kenema, which is the third most populous city in Sierra Leone, after Freetown and Bo. 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.
Sierra Leone Progressive Independence Movement was a political party in Sierra Leone, led by Paramount Chief from Kono, Tamba Sungu Mbriwa. The party was founded in 1958, through the merger of the Kono Progressive Movement and the Sierra Leone Independence Movement. The objective of the party was, according to its founding declaration, to "prosecute more vigorously a political campaign for national unity and independence."
Kono Progressive Movement was a political party in Kono, Sierra Leone, that emerged in the mid-1950s with the backdrop of the expansion of diamond mining activities there are the growing feeling amongst a section of the Kono people that they were not reaping the benefits of the diamond boom. KPM was led by Tamba Sungu Mbriwa. The movement became part of the political opposition, as there was a break between it and the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party only a few months after the founding of KPM. Prominent figures in the area, such as Tamba Ngegba, J.S. Kpakiwa and T.R. Foyoh.
The Kono people are a major Mande-speaking ethnic group in Sierra Leone at 5.2% of the country's total population. Their homeland is the diamond-rich Kono District in eastern Sierra Leone. The Kono are primarily diamond miners and farmers.
Alhaji Samuel Sidique Sam-Sumana is a Sierra Leonean politician who was the Vice President of Sierra Leone from September 17, 2007, to March 17, 2015. Sam-Sumana stood as the vice-presidential candidate of the All People's Congress (APC) in the 2007 presidential election, alongside presidential candidate Ernest Bai Koroma. The APC ticket defeated the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) presidential candidate Solomon Berewa and vice presidential candidate Momodou Koroma. Sam-Sumana took office as vice president on September 17, 2007.
Alex Tamba Brima, also known as Gullit, was a Sierra Leonean military commander. He was one of a group of seventeen soldiers in the Sierra Leone Armed Forces who called themselves Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) that successfully staged a coup that ousted president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997. On 19 July 2007 he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
Tamba E. Kaingbanja is a Sierra Leonean politician from the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). He is a member of the parliament of Sierra Leone, representing the Kono District. Kaingbaja is from the Kono ethnic group.
Kai Abdul Foday was a Sierra Leonean politician who served as member of Sierra Leone's parliament representing his hometown of Kono District. He was a member of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). Kai Abdul Foday was first elected to parliament in the 2002 general elections, he again won re-election in the 2007 general election, although his political party, the SLPP presidential candidate Solomon Berewa lost the presidential election to the APC presidential candidate, Ernest Bai Koroma. Kai Foday comes from the Kissi ethnic group. Kai Abdul Foday was born on 2 March 1924, in Kamiendor, Mafindor Chiefdom, Kono District.
Sahr Randolf Fillie-Faboe is a Sierra Leonean politician and diplomat. He is a former Sierra Leone's Ambassador to Liberia and a former member of parliament of Sierra Leone.
For the music label, see Motéma Music.
Alhaji Alpha Sahid Bakar Kanu is a Sierra Leonean politician and the current Sierra Leone minister of Presidential and Public Affairs. He is also the official spokesman of the All People's Congress (APC) political party, a position he has held even before the APC came to power. In January 2012, Kanu was chosen by Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma to serve as Minister of Information and Communication in Koroma's new second term cabinet.
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.
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.
Tamba John Sylvanus Lamina is a Sierra Leonean politician and diplomat. He is the current Minister of Local Government and Rural Development in the cabinet of Julius Maada Bio, serving since 2019.
Alhaji Mohamed Bailor Barrie, simply referred to as Bailor Barrie or M.B. Barrie was a Sierra Leonean businessman, activist and philanthropist. He hailed from Sierra Leone's northern district of Koinadugu and was a member of the Fula ethnic group of which he later became a well known activist and leader. Barrie became prominent in Sierra Leone's post colonial economic environment in the 1970s as the first Fula to venture into the European-Lebanese dominated import business of motor vehicles. He became very successful in the booming diamond mining and trading industry in the 1970s and 1980s, which established him as one of Sierra Leone's most successful businessmen, even without a standard level of education. Then president of Sierra Leone Siaka Stevens was using Barrie's success to defend himself against critics attacking him for ignoring the country's crumbling educational sector, by claiming that one could be successful like Barrie without any standard level of education. Barrie died in a road accident in 1989 on his way from Kenema, in the eastern part of Sierra Leone.
