Some of Sierra Leonean international footballers include Mohamed Kallon, Mohamed Bangura, Rodney Strasser, Kei Kamara, Ibrahim Teteh Bangura, Mustapha Dumbuya, Christian Caulker, Alhassan Bangura, Sheriff Suma, Osman Kakay, Mohamed Kamara, Umaru Bangura and Julius Gibrilla Woobay. Descendants of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Fula migrant settlers from the Fouta Djalon region of Guinea, they live primarily in the northeast and the western area of Sierra Leone. [156], As of 2012, Sierra Leone has 3 main hydroelectric plants. [14][15], 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. [155], As of 2016, about 12% of the population of Sierra Leone had access to electricity. East End Lions and Mighty Blackpool have an intense rivalry and when they play each other the national stadium in Freetown is often sold out and supporters of both clubs often clash with each other before and after the game. Mineral exports remain the main currency earner. With the emergence of the slave trade, human trafficking became the major commodity and indigenes were sold as slaves. According to an Overseas Development Institute report, private health expenditure accounts for 85.7% of total spending on health. Kenema is the most populated district in Sierra Leone, according to the preliminary report of the final result of the Mid-Term Census report released by Statistics Sierra Leone (Stats SL) last week. The vast majority of the Mende support the Sierra Leone People's Party; while the majority of the Temne support the All People's Congress.[208]. [20] Lansana was later tried and found guilty of treason, and sentenced to death in 1975. [133][134] In total, there are 19 local councils: 13 district councils, one for each of the 12 districts and one for the Western Area Rural, and six municipalities also have elected local councils. The Sierra Leone national football team, popularly known as the Leone Stars, represents the country in international competitions. They seized control of the government, arresting Lansana, and suspending the constitution. The report indicated that the countrys just-concluded first digital census proves that the nations population is Seven million, five hundred and forty-eight thousand seven hundred and two (7,548,702). Since 1985, the nation did not conduct any census for 19 years. Sierra Leone developed as the educational centre of British West Africa. The Judiciary have jurisdiction in all civil and criminal matters throughout the country. Brooklyn Museum. Sir Albert resorted to increasingly authoritarian actions in response to protests and enacted several laws against the opposition All People's Congress, whilst attempting to establish a one-party state. In Kono District, a rural eastern region of 500,00 people, famous for its diamond mines and as the epicenter of Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war, PIH is investing in every level of the health system. Sierra Leone has a dominant unitary central government and a weak local government. Like the Fula, the Mandinka are virtually all Muslims at over 99. Its capital, Falaba, was on the rich trading routes leading to the coast. Inland from the coastal plain is the interior plains region. Upon Milton Margai's unexpected death in 1964, his younger half-brother, Sir Albert Margai, was appointed as Prime Minister by parliament. Native to Sierra Leone, they have occupied Sherbro Island since it was founded. Next to the president is the vice-president, who is the second highest-ranking government official in the executive branch of the Sierra Leone Government. While the broader community included some women, the Black Poor seems to have exclusively consisted of men, some of whom developed relationships with local women and often married them. In October 2000, a UN-approved certification system for exporting diamonds from the country was put in place and led to a dramatic increase in legal exports. Some of that is smuggled, where it is possibly used for money laundering or financing illicit activities. In politics the overwhelming majority of Sierra Leoneans vote for a candidate without regard of the candidate being a Muslim or a Christian. 4043. Bai Sherbro was captured and with Bai Bureh, exiled to the Gold Coast (modern Ghana). The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. Sierra Leone as a country lies between latitude and longitude 12.2 degrees west and 8.5 degrees north respectively. Madam Yoko (c. 18491906) was a brilliant woman of culture and ambition. Supreme executive authority rests in the president and members of his cabinet and judicial power with the judiciary of which the Chief Justice of Sierra Leone is the head. The Sherbro are virtually all Christians, and their paramount chiefs had a history of intermarriage with British colonists and traders. [185][186] The vast majority of Sierra Leonean Muslims are adherent to the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. The Mende, who are believed to be descendants of the Mane,[citation needed] originally occupied the Liberian hinterland. [121] Sierra Leone is a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the US military (as covered under Article 98). The capital of this province is the city of Bo, and the largest ethnic group is the Mende ethnic group. Internet access in Sierra Leone has been sparse but is on the increase, especially since the introduction of 3G/4G cellular phone services across the country. However, the main suspect, Major S.I.M. Colonel Frederic Cardew, military governor of the Protectorate, in 1898 established a new tax on dwellings and demanded that the chiefs use their people to maintain roads. Bambay Kamara was also a strong Momoh loyalist and supporter. Minister responsible for Religious Affairs* Cocorioko", "United Methodists elect bishop for Sierra Leone", "Methodist Church Sierra Leone World Council of Churches", "Crosspoint United Methodist Church Welcome Sierra Leone", "The History of the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone", "The Evangelical College of Theology Sierra Leone", "Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Sierra Leone Presbytery Organization [WO-486]", "Sierra Leone::: A Place to Belong, Not Just Attend", "Seventh-day Adventist Church, Sierra Leone HOME", "Sierra Leone Evangelical Lutheran Church in America", "Sierra Leone Christians Preparing for PilgrFile: Sierra Leone News", "Sierra Leone: in wake of brutal war, churches full: News Headlines", "Visitors & Tours: Jehovahs Witnesses Office in Sierra Leone", "Sierra Leone LDS Statistics and Church Facts | Total Church Membership", "Historic milestone: Sierra Leone stake marks LDS Church's 3,000th", "Troubled Orthodox Mission in Sierra Leone", "Sierra Leone: The Temnes and the Politics of the All Peoples' Congress (APC)", "Sierra Leone 2015 Population and Housing Census Thematic Report on Gender", "Sierra Leone's Child Soldiers: War Exposures and Mental Health Problems by Gender", "Human Development Report 2009 Proportion of international migrant stocks residing in countries with high levels of human development (%)", "CIA The World Factbook Life Expectancy", "2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic", "Envoys from five countries present credentials to president", "The Ebola response in West Africa: Exposing the politics and culture of international aid", "Makeni: Coalition of First Responders formed", "World Health Assembly Update, 25 May 2019", "Sierra Leone's road accident First Responder Coalition to save thousands of lives", "The Primary Health Care Hand Book Policing", Country Comparison: Maternal Mortality Rate, Country Comparison:: Infant Mortality Rate, "A woman covered in urine taught this Sydney mum a lesson about dignity", "Freedom From Fistula | obstetric fistula caused by obstructed childbirth", "Fistula camp helps women and girls in Sierra Leone regain their dignity", Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, "Estimates for the use of Improved Drinking-Water Sources, Sierra Leone", "China Lends $28.8 Million USD to Sierra Leone for Orugu Dam", "Sierra Leone's Infrastructure. Sierra Leone's former defense minister Alfred Paolo Conteh is an ethnic Limba. [103][165], Population density varies greatly within Sierra Leone. [258] Among newspaper readership, young people are likely to read newspapers weekly and older people daily. [40], Many in London thought that moving them to Sierra Leone would lift them out of poverty. Sierra Leone has one of the world's largest deposits of rutile, a titanium ore used as paint pigment and welding rod coatings. The population of all Sierra Leonean cities and urban localities with more than 7.000 inhabitants according to census results. Krio is the most widely spoken language across Sierra Leone, spoken by 97% of the country's population. [233], Mental healthcare in Sierra Leone is almost non-existent. There is also a supply of natural resources such as gold, aluminum, and bauxite, which also contribute to the local economy. Like Stevens, Momoh was also a member of the minority Limba ethnic group. The NPRC junta established the National Supreme Council of State as the military highest command and final authority in all matters and was exclusively made up of the highest-ranking NPRC soldiers, included Strasser himself and the original soldiers who toppled president Momoh.[90]. Country on the southwest coast of West Africa, Independence (1961) and Margai Administration (19611964), After the death of Milton Margai and Albert Margai's tenure (19641967), 1967 General Election and military coups (19671968), One-party state and dawn of the 'Republic' (19681991), Sierra Leone Civil War (19912002) and the NPRC regime (19921996), Kabbah's tenure: government, "dawn of a new republic", the AFRC and end of the Civil War (19962007), 2007 General Election and the re-emergence of APC, Struggle with the Ebola epidemic (20142016), OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM (May 12, 2021). The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into 16 districts. In November 1951, Margai oversaw the drafting of a new constitution, which united the separate Colonial and Protectorate legislatures and provided a framework for decolonisation. Elements of the British Army, together with administrators and politicians, remained after withdrawal to help train the armed forces, improve the infrastructure of the country and administer financial and material aid. There are five hundred Ahmadiyya Mosque across Sierra Leone. Stevens had campaigned on a platform of bringing the tribes together under socialist principles. The Vai are largely Muslim majority at about 90%, while the Kru are virtually all Christians at over 99%. [71] In May 1957, Sierra Leone held its first parliamentary election. The presidential election, in which neither candidate reached the required threshold of 55%, went to a second round of voting, in which Julius Maada Bio was elected with 51% of the vote. In addition, differences between the Register of Liberated Africans of 1808 and the List of Captured Negroes of 1812 (which emulated the 1808 document) revealed some disparities in the entries of the recaptives, specifically in the names; many recaptives decided to change their given names to more anglicised versions which contributed to the difficulty in tracking them after they arrived in Sierra Leone. [39] The Settlers built Freetown in the styles they knew from their lives in the American South; they also continued American fashion and American manners. Football is the most popular sport in this city, and its home to the Kamboi Eagles professional football club. On 25 May 1997, 17 soldiers in the Sierra Leone army led by Corporal Tamba Gborie, loyal to the detained Major Johnny Paul Koroma, launched a military coup which sent President Kabbah into exile in Guinea and they established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). This would imply that the identity of the person who named Sierra Leone is unknown. There are 11,300 kilometres (7,000 miles) of highways in Sierra Leone, of which 904km (562mi)[103] are paved (about 8% of the roads). [264] The city has a lot to offer to tourists. Many people moved to Freetown during the countrys civil war to avoid violence in more rural areas, and economic opportunities also draw people to the city. The interior contains a variety of landforms ranging from savanna-covered low plains to rocky scarp and hill country. [107], Deforestation, both for commercial timber and to make room for agriculture, is the major concern and represents an enormous loss of natural economic wealth to the nation. Another 24 were discharged, and another 23 ran away. [69] Owing to the astute politics of Milton Margai, the educated Protectorate elites were able to join forces with the paramount chiefs in the face of Krio intransigence. Because of their trading, the Fulas are found in nearly all parts of the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began working in Sierra Leone in the 1970's, focusing on Lassa fever. Sivapragasam, Michael, "Why Did Black Londoners not join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 17831815?" The Criminal Libel Law, including Seditious Libel Law of 1965, is used to control what is published in the media. The Susu and their related Yalunka are traders; both groups are primarily found in the far north in Kambia and Koinadugu District close to the border with Guinea. Because Madam Yoko supported the British, some sub-chiefs rebelled, causing Yoko to take refuge in the police barracks. The Military of Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), are the unified armed forces of Sierra Leone responsible for the territorial security of Sierra Leone's border and defending the national interests of Sierra Leone within the framework of its international obligations. Led by Colonel Montague James, the Maroons helped the colonial forces to put down the revolt, and in the process the Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone secured the best houses and farms. Sierra Leone is a country in the western region of Africa bordering Liberia, Guinea, and the Atlantic Ocean. The climate is tropical, with two seasons determining the agricultural cycle: the rainy season from May to November, and a dry season from December to May, which includes harmattan, when cool, dry winds blow in off the Sahara Desert and the night-time temperature can be as low as 16C (60.8F). Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes and many became refugees in Guinea and Liberia. Poyo bars are areas of lively informal debate about politics, football, basketball, entertainment and other issues. Accordingly, they began to consider Sir Albert a threat to the ruling houses across the country. The war was later known as the Hut Tax War. Four of these are provinces, and one is simply called the Western Area. [227] As of 2014[update], Sierra Leone was estimated as having the 11th highest infant mortality rate in the world. Since then, there has been a smooth succession to the presidency all via elections. The district has the highest percentage, a total of 10.2%, making it the most populated in the country. Since independence, the Limba have traditionally been influential in Sierra Leone's politics, along with the Mende. This sort of representation was not available in Nova Scotia. 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