Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone ( (listen), also UK: , US: ), officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, informally Salone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea to the northeast. Sierra Leone has a tropical climate with a diverse environment ranging from savanna to rainforests, a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi) and a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. The capital and largest city is Freetown. The country is divided into five administrative regions which are subdivided into sixteen districts.Sierra Leone achieved independence from Britain on 27 April 1961, led by Milton Margai, who became the country's first Prime Minister. Sierra Leone held its first general elections as an Independent nation in May 1962, and Margai's Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) and its allies won the vast majority of seats in Parliament. Under the leadership of Albert Margai, who was elected by parliament as Prime Minister in 1964 after the death of his brother Milton Margai, SLPP narrowly lost the 1967 Sierra Leone parliamentary election to the main opposition party the All People's Congress (APC), led by Siaka Stevens, an outspoken critic of the SLPP government.
Shortly after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, Stevens was overthrown by the Sierra Leone Army. However, the military returned power back to Stevens and Stevens ruled Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1985 during which political opponents and critics of his government were suppressed; and also several senior officers in the army were executed after they were convicted to death for several attempted coups. On 19 April 1971, Stevens' government abolished Sierra Leone's parliamentary system and declared Sierra Leone a presidential republic. From 1978 to 1985, president Stevens’ APC party was the only legal political party in Sierra Leone and all other parties were banned. Stevens retired as president due to poor health in 1985 after 18 years in power.
The multiparty democratic constitution of Sierra Leone was again adopted in 1991 by retired Major General President Joseph Saidu Momoh, Steven's handpicked successor in 1985. In 1991, a group of mainly disgruntled, sacked and imprisoned former Sierra Leone soldiers during Stevens" rule, and lead by former Corporal Foday Sankoh launched a brutal civil war in the country on March 23, 1991 under their official name the Revolutionary United Front.
On 29 April 1992, a group of Junior soldiers in the Sierra Leone Army led by a 25 year old Captain Valentine Strasser overthrew President Momoh, and Sierra Leone was under military rule from 1992 to 1996 during the civil war, though much of the Eastern part of the country was controlled by the rebels, who forcibly recruited child soldiers. By 1994, the rebels launched constant attacks in most parts of the country, though the military successfully repelled the rebels back. In January 1996, military head of State Captain Strasser himself was overthrown, lead by his own deputy Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio. The country returned to a democratically elected government when the military Junta under Julius Maada Bio handed the presidency to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP after his victory in the 1996 election. However, the Sierra Leone military overthrew President Kabbah in a coup on 25 May 1997, and Major General Johnny Paul Koroma became the country's military head of state. A coalition of West African Ecowas armed forces led by Nigeria reinstated President Kabbah by military force in February 1998. The leaders of the coup that overthrew president Kabbah were executed after they were sentenced to death by a Sierra Leone military court. In January 2002, President Kabbah announced the end of the civil war with the help of Ecowas, the British government, the African Union, and the United Nations. Sierra Leone has had an uninterrupted democratic government from 1998 to present.
Sixteen ethnic groups inhabit Sierra Leone, each with its own language and customs. The two largest and most influential are the Temne and Mende people. The Temne are predominantly found in the northwest and the Mende in the southeast. About two per cent of the country's population are the Krio people, who are descendants of freed African American and West Indian slaves. English is the official language used in schools and government administration, however, the Krio is the most widely spoken language across Sierra Leone, and is spoken by 98% of the country's population. The Krio language unites all the ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction.
Sierra Leone is 77 per cent Muslim, with an influential Christian minority of 22 per cent. The country is regarded as one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world. Muslims and Christians collaborate and interact with each other very peacefully, and religious violence is very rare. The major Christian and Muslim holidays are official public holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha.Sierra Leone has relied on mining for its economic base, especially of diamonds. It is also among the largest producers of titanium and bauxite and a major producer of gold, and it has one of the world's largest deposits of rutile. Despite this natural wealth, 53 per cent of its population lived in poverty in 2011. Sierra Leone is a member of many international organisations, including the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Mano River Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Development Bank, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.