Map source: OCHA/ReliefWeb
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa.
It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest.
Sierra Leone covers a total area of 71,740 km and has a population estimated at 5.7 million. A former British Colony, it is now a constitutional republic. English is the official language, spoken at schools, by government and administratiors and by the media.
In 2002, the country emerged from a decade of civil war, with the help of Britain, the former colonial power, and a large United Nations peacekeeping mission.
More than 17,000 foreign troops disarmed tens of thousands of rebels and militia fighters. A lasting legacy of the war, in which tens of thousands of people died, was the atrocities committed by the rebels, whose trademark was to hack off the hands or feet of their victims.
Several years on, Sierra Leone still faces the challenge of reconstruction. Economic recovery has been slow partly because the reconstruction needs are so great. Around half of government revenue comes from donors.
For information about GOAL's work in Sierra Leone, click here.
Sierra Leone - Fact Box
| Average life expectancy: 46 years (males), 48.5 years (females) |
| Infant mortality rate: 123 per 1,000 live births (World Bank, 2009) |
| Children under five underweight for their age: 30 per cent |
| Probability at birth of not surviving to age of 40: 31 per cent |
| Population not using an improved water source: 47 per cent |
| People living below poverty line of US$2 a day: 76.1 per cent |
| Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: US$320 (World Bank, 2009) |
| Sierra Leone was ranked 180th of 182 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index (2009) |
Unless otherwise stated, all statistics in the Fact Box have been sourced from the United Nations' Development Report 2009