BASIC INFORMATION
Full Country Name: The Republic of Sierra Leone
Country Profile: Sierra Leone
Area: 72,325 sq km
Population: 5.1m (UN estimate 2005)
Capital City: Freetown (1.2m)
People and languages: Several ethnic groups make up Sierra Leone, including the Temne, the Mende and the Limbas. About 2% of the population are Creoles, descendants of freed slaves returned from the UK and USA. English and Krio are national languages. Indigenous languages are widely spoken.
Religions: Islam, Christianity and indigenous beliefs.
Currency: Leone (L). 1 leone = 100 cent
Major Political Parties: Eight registered parties contested the 2007 elections. The main ones are: SLPP - Sierra Leone Peoples Party; APC - All Peoples Congress; PMDC - People’s movement for Democratic Change
Head of State: President Ernest Bai Koroma
Foreign Minister: Momodu Koroma
Membership of international groups/organisations: United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Commonwealth, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), African Development Bank (AFDB), Mano River Union.
GEOGRAPHY
Sierra Leone is situated on the west coast of Africa and shares borders with Guinea and Liberia, Its 400km coastline overlooks the North Atlantic Ocean. The country can broadly be divided into three areas: mangrove swamps and beaches along the coast; a belt of low-lying wooded land in the immediate interior; and a mountain plateau rising to 2,000 metres further inland. The climate is tropical, with a hot, humid, rainy season from May to December and a winter dry season from December to April.
HISTORY
Sierra Leone was founded by returned slaves from Britain and North America in 1787. The colony of Sierra Leone (roughly the current day Western Province around Freetown) was administered by the British. In 1896 the hinterland came under British control as a protectorate. Following the Second World War, the indigenous populations of the protectorate gained greater political voice, culminating in the election of Dr (later Sir) Milton Margai of the SLPP as Chief Minister in 1953 and later Prime Minister in 1958. He led the country to full independence on April 27th 1961.
The SLPP ruled until 1967 when the electoral victory of the opposition APC was cut short by the country's first military coup. But the military eventually handed over to the APC and its leader Siaka Stevens in 1968. He turned the country into a one -party state in 1978. He finally retired in 1985, handing over to his deputy, General Momoh. Under popular pressure, one party rule was ended in 1991, and a new constitution providing for a return to multi-party politics was approved in August of that year. Elections were scheduled for 1992. But, by this stage, Sierra Leone's institutions had collapsed, mismanagement and corruption had ruined the economy and rising youth unemployment was a serious problem.
Taking advantage of the collapse, a rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) emerged , with backing from a warlord, Charles Taylor, in neighbouring Liberia, and in 1991 led a rebellion against the APC government. The government was unable to cope with the insurrection, and was overthrown in a junior Officers coup in April 1992. Its leader, Capt Strasser, was however unable to defeat the RUF. Indeed, the military were more often than not complicit with the rebels in violence and looting.
Strasser was deposed in January 1996 by his fellow junta leaders. His replacement, Major Maada Bio, under international pressure, agreed to organise elections in February 1996. The RUF refused to take part and continued the conflict. The elections were won by Tejan Kabbah and the SLPP. The new government signed a peace agreement with the RUF in Abidjan 1996 but it failed to stop the rebellion. Kabbah's government was subsequently overthrown in a further coup in 1997 and took refuge in neighbouring Guinea. The military junta, headed by Major Johnny Paul Koroma, invited the RUF to join government. But the junta was complicit in looting and violence, often in association with the RUF, and was unable to consolidate its position. It was eventually overthrown and The Kabbah government was re-instated in 1998 with the help of troops from ECOWAS.
The destructive force of the rebellion reached Freetown for the first time when the RUF, combined with renegade elements of the army, invaded the capital in January 1999, committing appalling acts of violence against the civilian population in the process. They were repulsed by the Nigerian troops of ECOMOG, but at great human cost. A second peace agreement, the Lome Accord of 1999, to be supervised by a UN peacekeeping force, brought the RUF officially into government. But this collapsed in 2000 when the RUF attacked UN peacekeepers upcountry and threatened to invade Freetown again. Some UN peacekeepers were killed and others detained by the rebels. Security was restored with the intervention of British troops in May 2000 and RUF ministers, including its leader Foday Sankoh, were arrested. The signing of the Abuja peace agreement in November 2000, together with the deployment of UNAMSIL across the country, allowed the gradual restoration of government authority throughout the territory. The war was officially declared over in February 2002.
POLITICS
Sierra Leone is a constitutional democratic republic with a directly elected president and a unicameral parliament of 124 seats. Both President and Parliament serve five year terms. In the parliament, 112 seats are elected by popular vote and paramount chiefs (elected separately) fill the other 12. The present APC government and President Koroma were elected in August/September 2007 for a five year term. The APC won 59 of the elected seats; the SLPP won 43 seats and the PMDC, a new party which broke away from the SLPP shortly before the elections, won 10 seats. President Koroma has publicly stated his priorities will be to improve energy supplies; strengthen the Anti-Corruption Commission; and increase employment. Local elections are due in June 2008.
HUMAN RIGHTS
The 10-year RUF rebellion saw widespread killings, rape, looting and destruction of property, largely in the countryside but also in Freetown in 1999. Renegade soldiers also took part in atrocities against civilians. At least 50,000 people died. A third of the population was displaced. Some 30,000 civilians were deliberately maimed through the amputation of limbs and other physical atrocities. Thousands of children were forcibly recruited into the RUF ranks where they too committed gross human rights abuses, often against their own families. Although the human rights has greatly improved since the end of the conflict, a few issues such as the protracted detention of remand prisoners, and the widespread practice of female genital mutilation, remain of concern.
In January 2002 The UN and Government of Sierra Leone established the Special Court for Sierra Leone to bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility for war crimes and atrocities. The Court opened in March 2004. A total of 13 people have been indicted, from all sides of the conflict. Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockarie have since died and the whereabouts of Johnny Paul Koroma is unknown. 10 individuals currently face charges. The most high profile of them, former Liberian President Charles Taylor, was arrested in Nigeria on 29 March 2006 and transferred to the Special Court in Freetown where he has been charged with crimes relating to Sierra Leone’s civil war. He has since been transferred to The Hague where he is being tried under the auspices of the Special Court. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was also established in 2002. The Commission heard around 9,000 testimonies, and submitted its report in 2005. A Human Rights Commission ( a key recommendation of the TRC report) has now been set up.
Human Rights Report
Here is the
Official Website of Sierra Leone's Truth & Reconciliation Commission Report.
ECONOMY
Basic Economic Facts
GDP at market prices: US$1,330M (2006 est)
Real GDP Growth: 7.2% (2006 est)
Inflation: 9.5% (2006 est)
(Sources: IMF, World Bank, UNDP)
Exchange rate: $1 = Le2900 £1 = Le 5000
Major Trading Partners: Germany, United states, United Kingdom.
Sierra Leone's economy had virtually collapsed by the late 1980s because of mismanagement and corruption. This was made worse by the conflict. The diamond industry, a key plank of the economy, remained in rebel hands for a decade. The RUF also overran and closed down the rutile mines, while the once-flourishing agricultural sector fell into a steep decline. Economic recovery has been slow partly because the reconstruction needs are so great. Around half of government revenue comes from donors. Efforts have been made to reorganise the diamond industry, and Sierra Leone has signed up to the Kimberley process. There is still significant smuggling but government revenue from diamonds has increased in the last three years. Rutile mining has also restarted. Corruption remains a problem. An anti-corruption Commission was established in 2002 with UK support.
DEVELOPMENT
Sierra Leone lies towards the bottom of the UNDP's Human Development Index, ranked 176 out of 177 countries. Poverty is high, 57% live on less than a dollar a day and 74% live on less than $2 a day. The large diaspora provides a safety net with significant remittances going back home. Sierra Leone's tradition of high education standards has been eroded in the past two decades. Almost two-thirds of the population are now illiterate, although school attendance has gone up significantly since the end of the war. The RUF rebellion also caused massive population displacement and prevented the delivery of services to the countryside. Some recent progress has been registered, including on food security, but reversing the damage is a long-term and costly task.
The IMF has provided significant funding for poverty reduction programmes but it has expressed its concern at the lack of progress. The UK's Department for International Development has made a long term commitment to Sierra Leone. A memorandum of understanding was signed in November 2002. DfID have undertaken to provide £120m over three financial years (2003/4 to 2005/6), and to provide long term support beyond that. The DfID effort is concentrated on reforming the civil service, the security sector and the judiciary and stimulating the private sector. Currently around a third of DfID funds are given to the government in the form of direct budgetary support. DfID and the FCO have given funding to civil society groups working to ensure that the election campaign is peaceful and fought on policy alternative and government delivery.
World Bank
EU Directorate Development
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
In West Africa, Sierra Leone, together with Guinea and Liberia, form the Mano River Union, which was set up in 1973 . Sierra Leone's relations with Guinea have remained good although there is a small ongoing dispute about the border demarcation around Yenga. In the past relations with Liberia have been poor because of Charles Taylor's support for the RUF. In an attempt to break the link, the UNSC introduced sanctions against Liberia in March 2001. Sierra Leone enjoyed the support of the wider Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which it is a member, in its several attempts to resolve the RUF rebellion and has good relations with Nigeria.
The conflict in Sierra Leone brought it much international attention. The UN mounted a peacekeeping force, UNAMSIL, in 2000. At its height it comprised 17,500 soldiers from ten countries, and was one of the UN's biggest operations. The UK provided some senior officers to UNAMSIL's headquarters in Freetown. In 2004, UNAMSIL handed over formal control of the country's security to the Sierra Leone Government. It finally withdrew at the end of 2005 and has been replaced by the UN Integrated Office for Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL). The task of UNIOSIL is to help the country consolidate peace and assist the Government of Sierra Leone strengthen capacity of State institutions, rule of law, human rights, and the security sector, accelerate the Millennium Development Goals, improve transparency, and build capacity to hold free and fair elections in 2007.
ECOWAS
UNIOSIL
BILATERAL RELATIONS WITH THE UK
The UK played a major part in helping to end the civil war in Sierra Leone. Its military intervention in May 2000 to secure the airport and the capital both stopped a threatened RUF invasion and allowed the secure deployment of arriving UN troops. The UK has also played a leading role in training the new Sierra Leone Army – initially as the British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT), and from 2002 as part of the International Military Advisory and Training Team (IMATT). The UK is committed to a training role until at least 2010. The UK also trained and helped to equip a new Police Force as part of a Commonwealth Training Team, and provided the Inspector General of Police for the first few years.
The UK's long-term commitment to Sierra Leone is in recognition of the long time required to rebuild a collapsed state. Its holistic approach involving broad institutional change in-country and taking account of the regional dynamics, is widely considered a model for post-conflict environments. The pillars of UK support are: to improve national security; to develop governance, and tackle corruption; to foster a just and inclusive economy and society; and, to improve stability in the sub-region.
Sierra Leone: Making a Difference
Trade and Investment with the UK
In 2003 UK exports of goods to Sierra Leone, which consist of a diverse range of goods, machinery and road vehicles, were worth £26.14m in 2005 and fell to £18.5m in 2006, while UK imports from Sierra Leone, principally ferous ores and metal scrap were valued at £4.3m in 2006 up from £1.24 million in 2005.
In March 2006 a Commonwealth Business Council forum in Sierra Leone was held successfully with attendees from all around the world.
Commonwealth Business Council forum
Diplomatic Representation
UK representation in Sierra Leone: High Commissioner Ms Sarah MacIntosh
Sierra Leonean representation in the UK: High Commissioner Melvin Humpah Chalobah
Cultural relations with the UK
The British Council has had an office in Freetown since 1943. Inter alia, it currently manages a portfolio of DFID projects on gender, youth, education and access to justice, budgeted at £28m over the next 3-5 years.
British Council - Sierra Leone
Visits
A large number of high level visits to and from Sierra Leone underline the strength and depth of the relationship. Key ones have been:
Inward
Most of the members of the Government of Sierra Leone, including the President, Vice President and Foreign Minister, visited the UK for the November 2005 Consultative Group meeting. President Kabbah also visited the UK in July 2003, June 2002 and 2000. Vice-President Berewa visited the UK in February 2005 and January 2004. Foreign Minister Koroma visited in January 2005.
Outward
The then British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Sierra Leone in May 2007. The Prince of Wales visited Sierra Leone in November 2006. Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, visited in 2004 and again in July 2006. There are around 1500 UK citizens in Sierra Leone. There is a large Sierra Leone community in the UK, estimated at over 60,000.
For UK policy and parliamentary interest in Sierra Leone – see the Hansard website.
TRAVEL
Travel Advice: Sierra Leone
NHS travel health advice
Last reviewed: 13 December 2007
