Where is Sierra Leone located?

The Republic of Sierra Leone is a country located on the western side of the African continent, specifically on the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. It is a small republic bordered to the southeast by Liberia, and to the north by Guinea. The Republic of Sierra Leone was under British occupation, which lasted and remained there for a long period of time, and Sierra Leone declared independence in the year 1961 AD. The word Sierra Leone consists of two syllables: the first is Sira, which means the summit and height of something, and the second syllable is Leon, which means the lion; That is, the word Sierra Leone means the summit of the lion.

The origin of Sierra Leone's name came from the analogy between the sound of thunder on the tops of its mountains and the sound of the roar of lions. As the Portuguese traveler Pedrocentra is the one who gave the Republic of Sierra Leone this name, and the people of the country call the Republic of Sierra Leone the name Romadonge, which means mountain, and the capital of the Republic of Sierra Leone is called the port of Freetown, and the Republic of Sierra Leone contains fourteen governorates, the most important of which are Koidu and Kenma.

Diamond production in Sierra Leone

The Republic of Sierra Leone is famous for producing diamonds. As the successive coups that took place in the nineties led to the weakening of the central authority in the country, and this resulted in the emergence of an organization to smuggle ore from the mines of the Republic of Sierra Leone to other international diamond companies outside the country at reduced prices and less than the real prices, especially De Beers, and this diamond was called blood, and he called Many people boycott it even though it is impossible to distinguish it from other species.

With the continuous increase in the crime of smuggling diamonds, this led to the emergence of a civil war that lasted from 1991 AD to 2002 AD. Where the main objective of the war was to control the diamond mines located on the territory of the Republic of Sierra Leone, and in this war children were recruited and given weapons and automatic rifles, which led to bad results for adults and children in the Republic of Sierra Leone.

Many international programs have been established to rehabilitate these children who are considered war criminals, and the real war criminal Foday Sankoh was arrested, and that happened in 2004 AD, and diamond smuggling was not limited to smugglers only; Rather, many former presidents of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Liberia who worked to smuggle blood diamonds also participated in this operation, especially former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was accused by the International Court of smuggling blood diamonds in 2004.

Islam in Sierra Leone

Islam reached the Republic of Sierra Leone; As the Islamic call in Africa spread widely in its south, and the Almoravids worked to transfer the Islamic call to western Sudan, then they moved to West Africa, which led to the entry of many Negroes to Islam, and merchants also contributed to spreading Islam to the tropical forests on the western coast for Africa; As the number of Muslims in Sierra Leone is more than half, and they are spread in the northern and eastern regions of the country.