89 Facts About Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a unicameral parliament and a directly elected president serving a five-year term with a maximum of two terms.

Sierra Leone is a secular nation with the constitution providing for the separation of state and religion and freedom of conscience.

Sierra Leone gained independence from the United Kingdom on 27 April 1961, and became a Commonwealth realm on the same day; the country's name changed to the Dominion of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone was reinstated after nine months through military intervention by ECOMOG.

Kabbah's presidency marked the dawn of a new Sierra Leone, which included the end of the civil war in 2002, a focus on fostering national unity and reconciliation, trust in government, peace and stability, the improvement in relations with many countries, and the refounding of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces with special assistance and training led by the Government of the United Kingdom.

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Sierra Leone is rich in natural resources, especially diamond, gold, bauxite and aluminium.

Sierra Leone is home to Sub-Saharan Africa's first Western-style university: Fourah Bay College.

Archaeological finds show that Sierra Leone has been inhabited continuously for at least 2, 500 years; populated successively by societies who migrated from other parts of Africa.

European contacts within Sierra Leone were among the first in West Africa during the 15th century.

Bunce Island, an island on the Sierra Leone River, was used as a base for European slavers as a place for slave ships to dock before sailing via the Middle Passage to the Americas.

Thomas Peters pressed British authorities for relief and more aid; together with British abolitionist John Clarkson, the Sierra Leone Company was established to relocate Black Loyalists who wanted to take their chances in West Africa.

In Sierra Leone they were called the Nova Scotian Settlers, the Nova Scotians, or the Settlers.

Black settlers in Sierra Leone enjoyed much more autonomy than their white equivalent in European countries.

Sierra Leone Company, controlled by London investors, refused to allow the settlers to take freehold of the land.

Sierra Leone developed as the educational centre of British West Africa.

Sierra Leone'srbro sent fighters to assist Bai Bureh in the fight against the British.

Sierra Leone'srbro was influential and powerful and the British greatly feared him.

Sierra Leone's employed her capacity for friendly communications to persuade the British to give her control of the Kpaa Mende chiefdom.

Sierra Leone's used diplomacy to communicate with many local chiefs who did not trust her friendship with the British.

In 1953, Sierra Leone was granted local ministerial powers and Margai was elected Chief Minister of Sierra Leone.

The new constitution ensured Sierra Leone had a parliamentary system within the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Dominion of Sierra Leone retained a parliamentary system of government and was a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

In May 1962, Sierra Leone held its first general election as an independent nation.

Sierra Leone was neither corrupt nor did he make a lavish display of his power or status.

Sierra Leone based the government on the rule of law and the separation of powers, with multiparty political institutions and fairly viable representative structures.

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Sierra Leone appointed government officials to represent various ethnic groups.

Sierra Leone endeavoured to change Sierra Leone from a democracy to a one-party state.

Sierra Leone was a close ally of Albert Margai, who had appointed him to the position in 1964.

However, on 23 March 1967, a group of military officers in the Sierra Leone Army led by Brigadier General Andrew Juxon-Smith, staged a counter coup against Commander Lansana.

Sierra Leone was found guilty and sentenced to death, despite the fact that it was Bangura whose actions led to Stevens return to power.

Sierra Leone cancelled Juxon-Smith's construction of a church and mosque on the grounds of Victoria Park.

Sierra Leone removed the SLPP party from competitive politics in general elections, some believed, through the use of violence and intimidation.

Many senior officers in the Sierra Leone Army were greatly disappointed with Stevens' policies and his handling of the Sierra Leone Military, but none could confront Stevens.

Sierra Leone created several government institutions that are still in use today.

On 25 May 1997, 17 soldiers in the Sierra Leone army led by Corporal Tamba Gborie, loyal to the detained Major General Johnny Paul Koroma, launched a military coup which sent President Kabbah into exile in Guinea and they established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.

Corporal Gborie quickly went to the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Services headquarters in New England, Freetown to announce the coup to a shocked nation and to alert all soldiers across the country to report for guard duty.

In 2014, an Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone began that widely affected the country, including forcing Sierra Leone to declare a state of emergency.

In early August 2014 Sierra Leone cancelled league football matches because of the Ebola epidemic.

Sierra Leone is located on the southwest coast of West Africa, lying mostly between latitudes 7° and 10°N, and longitudes 10° and 14°W.

Sierra Leone is home to four terrestrial ecoregions: Guinean montane forests, Western Guinean lowland forests, Guinean forest-savanna mosaic, and Guinean mangroves.

Human activities claimed to be responsible or contributing to land degradation in Sierra Leone include unsustainable agricultural land use, poor soil and water management practices, deforestation, removal of natural vegetation, fuelwood consumption and to a lesser extent overgrazing and urbanisation.

Until 2002, Sierra Leone lacked a forest management system because of the civil war that caused tens of thousands of deaths.

Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a directly elected president and a unicameral legislature.

Sierra Leone has a dominant unitary central government and a weak local government.

The executive branch of the Government of Sierra Leone, headed by the president of Sierra Leone has extensive powers and influences.

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The Sierra Leone parliament is led by the Speaker of Parliament, who is the overall leader of Parliament and is directly elected by sitting members of parliament.

The current speaker of the Sierra Leone parliament is Abass Bundu, who was elected by members of parliament on 21 January 2014.

Since independence in 1961, Sierra Leone's politics has been dominated by two major political parties: the SLPP and the APC.

Sierra Leone has diplomatic relations that include China, Russia, Libya, Iran, and Cuba.

Sierra Leone has good relations with the West, including the United States, and has maintained historical ties with the United Kingdom and other former British colonies through its membership of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Sierra Leone is a member of the United Nations and its specialised agencies, the African Union, the African Development Bank, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Sierra Leone is a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the US military.

President of Sierra Leone is the Commander in Chief of the military, with the Minister of Defence responsible for defence policy and the formulation of the armed forces.

The Military of Sierra Leone has a Chief of the Defence Staff who is a uniformed military official responsible for the administration and the operational control of the Sierra Leone military.

Law enforcement in Sierra Leone is primarily the responsibility of the Sierra Leone Police, which is accountable to the Minister of Internal Affairs (appointed by the president).

Sierra Leone Police was established by the British colony in 1894; it is one of the oldest police forces in West Africa.

Republic of Sierra Leone is composed of five regions: the Northern Province, North West Province, Southern Province, the Eastern Province, and the Western Area.

Sierra Leone operates a floating exchange rate system, and foreign currencies can be exchanged at any of the commercial banks, recognised foreign exchange bureaux and most hotels.

Rich in minerals, Sierra Leone has relied on mining, especially diamonds, for its economic base.

Sierra Leone is known for its blood diamonds that were mined and sold to diamond conglomerates during the civil war, to buy the weapons that fuelled its atrocities.

Sierra Leone has one of the world's largest deposits of rutile, a titanium ore used as paint pigment and welding rod coatings.

Sierra Leone's highways are linked to Conakry, Guinea, and Monrovia, Liberia.

Sierra Leone has the largest natural harbour on the African continent, allowing international shipping through the Queen Elizabeth II Quay in the Cline Town area of eastern Freetown or through Government Wharf in central Freetown.

The Lungi International Airport located in the coastal town of Lungi in Northern Sierra Leone is the primary airport for domestic and international travel to or from Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone appears on the EU list of prohibited countries with regard to the certification of airlines.

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In conjunction with the UK's Department for International Development, Sierra Leone has set the goal to provide solar power to all of its citizens by 2025.

In 2019 Sierra Leone had a population of 7, 813, 215 and a growth rate of 2.

The constitution of Sierra Leone provides for freedom of religion and the Sierra Leone Government generally protects it.

Surveys of the religious make up of Sierra Leone vary widely, though Muslims make up the majority of the population.

Sierra Leone is regarded as one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world.

Sierra Leone has a vibrant Ahmaddiya Muslim population, especially in the southern city of Bo, which is home to a large Ahmadiyya Muslim population.

The United Council of Imams, is an influential Islamic religious body in Sierra Leone, that is made up of all imams of mosques throughout Sierra Leone.

Many Christian organisations in Sierra Leone, including the Council of Churches condemned Ajisafe's sermon against Islam and Muslims.

Sierra Leone is home to about sixteen ethnic groups, each with its own language.

Sierra Leone's former defense minister Alfred Paolo Conteh is an ethnic Limba.

Sierra Leone's former Vice-President Alhaji Samuel Sam-Sumana is an ethnic Kono.

Oku people are the descendants of liberated muslim Yorubas from Southwest Nigeria, who were released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Liberated Africans or came as settlers in the mid-19th century.

The current Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone Kaifala Marah is an ethnic Kuranko.

Loko in the north are native people of Sierra Leone, believed to have lived in Sierra Leone since the time of European encounter.

Sierra Leone's father was a Yalunka paramount chief of Solima, a prosperous chieftaincy.

Education in Sierra Leone is legally required for all children for six years at primary level and three years in junior secondary education, but a shortage of schools and teachers has made implementation impossible.

Sierra Leone suffers from epidemic outbreaks of diseases, including yellow fever, cholera, Ebola, lassa fever and meningitis.

Water supply in Sierra Leone is characterised by limited access to safe drinking water.

In early August 2014 Guinea closed its borders to Sierra Leone to help contain the spreading of the virus, which originated in Guinea, as more new cases of the disease were being reported in Sierra Leone than in Guinea.

Media in Sierra Leone began with the introduction of the first printing press in Africa at the start of the 19th century.

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Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service was created by the colonial government in 1934 making it the earliest English language radio broadcaster service in West Africa.

Arts in Sierra Leone are a mixture of tradition and hybrid African and western styles.

The country's national television network, The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts the national football team live match, along with many local radio stations across the country.

Sierra Leone is the first African country to join the International Floorball Federation.