Introduction to Sierra Leone

A Brief Background on Sierra Leone

Location: West Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean between Guinea and Liberia.

Religion: Muslims %60, Christian %10, Indigenous Beliefs %10

Government: Constitutional Democracy, Republic of Sierra Leone. Independent Since April 1961

Population: 5.7 million

Life Expectancy: 48 years

Ethnic groups (2008 census): 20 African ethnic groups--Temne 35%, Mende 31%, Limba 8%, Kono 5%, Creole 2% (descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area in the late 18th century; also known as Krio), Mandingo 2%, Loko 2%, other 15% (includes refugees from Liberia's recent civil war, and small numbers of Europeans, Lebanese, Pakistanis, and Indians)

Political parties: The Political Parties Registration Commission was formed in late 2005 to review registered parties to see whether they still met registration requirements.

Economic History

Sierra Leone is an extremely poor nation with tremendous inequality in income distribution. While it possesses substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources, its physical and social infrastructure has yet to recover from the civil war, and serious social disorders continue to hamper economic development. Nearly half of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing consists mainly of the processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market. Alluvial diamond mining remains the major source of hard currency earnings, accounting for nearly half of Sierra Leone's exports. The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad, which is essential to offset the severe trade imbalance and supplement government revenues. The IMF has completed a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility program that helped stabilize economic growth and reduce inflation and in 2010 approved a new program worth $45 million over three years.

Transnational Issues

As domestic fighting among disparate ethnic groups, rebel groups, warlords, and youth gangs in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone gradually abates, the number of refugees in border areas has begun to slowly dwindle; Sierra Leone considers excessive Guinea's definition of the flood plain limits to define the left bank boundary of the Makona and Moa rivers and protests Guinea's continued occupation of these lands including the hamlet of Yenga occupied since 1998.

Information provided by World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sl.html