Portal:Sierra Leone

Location of Sierra Leone

The flag of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia, and the northern half of the nation is surrounded by Guinea. 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. Freetown is the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into 16 districts.

Sierra Leone is a presidential republic with a unicameral parliament and a directly elected president. Sierra Leone is a secular state with the constitution providing for the separation of state and religion and freedom of conscience (which includes freedom of thoughts and religion). Muslims make up about three-quarters of the population, though with an influential Christian minority. Religious tolerance in the West African country is very high and is generally considered a norm and part of Sierra Leone's cultural identity.

The geographic area has been inhabited for millennia, but Sierra Leone, as the country and its borders are known today, was founded by the British Crown in two phases: first, the coastal Sierra Leone Colony in 1808 (for returning Africans after the abolition of slavery); second, the inland Protectorate in 1896 (as the Crown needed to establish more dominion inland following the outcome of the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885). Hence, the country formally became known as the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate or simply British Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1961, becoming a Commonwealth realm as the Dominion of Sierra Leone with Sir Milton Margai of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) as the country's first prime minister.

A new constitution was adopted in 1971, transforming the country into a presidential republic led by Siaka Stevens of the All People's Congress (APC). After declaring the APC the sole legal party in 1978, Stevens was succeeded by Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1985, who enacted a new constitution reintroducing a multi-party system in 1991. A brutal civil war between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group broke out the same year, which went on for 11 years with devastating effects. During the war, the country experienced three coups d'état and alternated between civilian and military rule. Following military interventions by the ECOMOG and later the United Kingdom, the RUF was definitively defeated in 2002. The country has remained relatively stable since then, and is attempting to recover from the war. The two main political parties are the APC and the SLPP. (Full article...)