{"id":36599,"date":"2018-03-05T07:35:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T06:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/36599-sierra-leone-cut-down-by-war-and-ebola.html"},"modified":"2018-03-05T07:35:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T06:35:02","slug":"sierra-leone-cut-down-by-war-and-ebola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/36599-sierra-leone-cut-down-by-war-and-ebola.html","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone, cut down by war and Ebola"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The West African nation of Sierra Leone is among the world's poorest countries despite its significant mineral wealth, and scarred by a brutal civil war and the deadly Ebola virus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Here is some background about the country as it prepares to go to the polls on March 7.<\/p>\n

- Brutal civil war -<\/h3>\n

Founded by Britain in 1787 for freed slaves evacuated from the Caribbean, Sierra Leone was a British colony until independence in 1961.<\/p>\n

Thirty years later -- after a series of coups and rife instability -- it was plunged into a devastating civil war notorious for its mutilations, drugged child soldiers, sex slaves and rapes.<\/p>\n

The 11-year conflict (1991-2002) was launched by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel army to overthrow the government and left around 120,000 people dead, according to UN estimates. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes.<\/p>\n

A Special Court for Sierra Leone was created in 2002 to judge war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war.<\/p>\n

Among others, it sentenced the former president of neighbouring Liberia, Charles Taylor, to 50 years in prison for aiding the RUF in return for \"blood diamonds\", so-called because of their link to the conflict.<\/p>\n

- Economy battered, resilient -<\/h3>\n

The civil war devastated Sierra Leone's agriculture sector, centred on rice, cocoa and coffee production, and destroyed much of its infrastructure.<\/p>\n

But the country has mineral riches, including diamonds, gold, bauxite, titanium ore and magnetite iron ore, which have attracted massive investment.<\/p>\n

The mining sector became a key driver of the economy after the discovery of iron ore in 2011, leading to unprecedented growth of 21 percent in 2013, according to the African Development Bank.<\/p>\n

But by 2015 growth was -20.5 percent, slashed by Ebola and the collapse of iron ore prices.<\/p>\n

\"Economic growth has resumed, however, and remains upward, supported by new investments in mining, agriculture, and fisheries,\" the World Bank says, projecting growth at 5.4 percent for 2017.<\/p>\n

- Ebola hotspot -<\/h3>\n

Sierra Leone was among the countries hardest hit by the December 2013 Ebola outbreak, along with Guinea and Liberia.<\/p>\n

It recorded more than 3,900 of the 11,300 deaths from the more than two-year epidemic, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

The outbreak led to schools being closed between June 2014 and April 2015.<\/p>\n

Over the past 15 years the country has also suffered four major floods which affected more than 220,000 people and caused serious economic damage, according to the World Bank.<\/p>\n

The flooding in August 2017 was the deadliest with 1,140 people dead or missing, according to an official toll.<\/p>\n

- Poverty, corruption -<\/h3>\n

With a population of 7.07 million, according to the 2015 census, Sierra Leone has high rates of youth unemployment and corruption, and weak national cohesion, the World Bank says.<\/p>\n

\"Problems of poor infrastructure and widespread rural and urban impoverishment persist in spite of progress and reforms,\" it says.<\/p>\n

It is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 179 of 188 on the human development index (2016) of the UN Development Programme.<\/p>\n

Transparency International classed it in 2017 as 130 out of 176 of the world's least corrupt countries.<\/p>\n

The country also has the world's highest maternal mortality rate at 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the UN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The West African nation of Sierra Leone is among the world's poorest countries despite its significant mineral wealth, and scarred by a brutal civil war and the deadly Ebola virus. Here is some background about the country as it prepares to go to the polls on March 7. - Brutal civil war - Founded by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2461],"class_list":["post-36599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed","ji_location-sierra-leone"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSierra Leone, cut down by war and Ebola - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/36599-sierra-leone-cut-down-by-war-and-ebola.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sierra Leone, cut down by war and Ebola\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The West African nation of Sierra Leone is among the world's poorest countries despite its significant mineral wealth, and scarred by a brutal civil war and the deadly Ebola virus. 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