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, and Milton Margai became the first Prime Minister. Margai's political party was the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) which, under the leadership of Albert Margai, narrowly lost the 1967 Sierra Leone parliamentary elections to the main opposition party of the All People's Congress (APC), led by Siaka Stevens.
Stevens was a political strongman who ruled Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1985 when he retired from politics due to poor health. 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. The multiparty democratic constitution of Sierra Leone was adopted in 1991 by the government of President Joseph Saidu Momoh, Stevens' hand-picked successor, just as the rebel group Revolutionary United Front led by Foday Sankoh launched a brutal civil war in the country.
On 29 April 1992, a group of Junior soldiers in the Sierra Leone Army led by Captain Valentine Strasser overthrew President Momoh, and Sierra Leone was under military rule from 1992 to 1996 during the civil war. The country returned to a democratically elected government when the military Junta under Brigadier General 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 then reinstated President Kabbah by military force in February 1998, and the leaders of the coup 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 percent 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 percent Muslim, with an influential Christian minority of 22 percent. 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. The nation is home to the third-largest natural harbour in the world. Despite this natural wealth, 53 percent 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.