In 2015, the population of Sierra Leone was estimated to be around 7 million people. The economy of Sierra Leone was largely based on mining, agriculture, and services, and it had strong ties with other African countries as well as the European Union. It had a high level of foreign investments which contributed to its economic growth. Politically, Sierra Leone was a republic ruled by President Ernest Bai Koroma since 2007. In 2015, His Excellency Samura Kamara served as Prime Minister while His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma served as President of the Republic. The Parliament of Sierra Leone was composed of two chambers: House of Representatives and House of Paramount Chiefs. In terms of defence, Sierra Leone had strong military ties with Nigeria which it joined in 2008 as part of its post-civil war security policy. Sierra Leone also maintained strong diplomatic relations with its neighboring countries in Africa as well as other countries around the world. See ehealthfacts for Sierra Leone in the year of 2005.
Yearbook 2015
Sierra Leone. The year was largely marked by the epidemic of Ebola fever that erupted in 2014 and affected primarily Sierra Leone and neighboring countries Guinea and Liberia. At the end of January, statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that just over 10,500 people had been infected in Sierra Leone, of which about 3,200 had died. The epidemic continued to rage in the spring and early summer. From the end of July, it slowed somewhat and for two months only a few cases were reported, the last in mid-September. On November 7, Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola fever. According to COUNTRYAAH, Freetown is the capital of Sierra Leone which is located in Western Africa. A total of 14,122 people were affected by the dreaded disease, more than in any other country. However, the death toll in Sierra Leone, 3,955, was lower than that in Liberia, where over 4,800 people died.
- Also see AbbreviationFinder.org for Sierra Leone country abbreviations, including geography, history, economy and politics.
In March, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pledged US $ 187 million in support of Sierra Leone. Of these, 80 million were earmarked for the fight against Ebola fever and for alleviating the social crisis that the disease caused. Later in the month, the IMF also granted the country debt relief of just over US $ 29 million.
In early March, Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana was expelled from the General People’s Congress (APC). A number of accusations were made against him, including that he should have tried to form a new party in his diamond-rich home district of Kono in eastern Sierra Leone. He should also have called for political violence and lied about his academic merits. In addition, he was accused of not being “a real Muslim”. The vice president managed to leave his home before being arrested by the soldiers who surrounded the home and he sought political asylum at the US embassy. A few days later, he was dismissed by President Ernest Bai Koroma on the grounds that he had “abandoned his duties”. The opposition party of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) with several questioned whether the vice president could be dismissed in this way without violating the constitution. Koroma referred to paragraphs requiring the Vice President to belong to a political party. In September, the Supreme Court ruled that the president had the right to dismiss the vice president.
The census that was supposed to have been carried out in December 2014 but which was canceled due to the epidemic was postponed again in 2015. The reason was that the composition of the body responsible for the bill was criticized for considering predominantly APC supporters, the party that President Koroma represents. The plan was for the census to take place in December.
History. – Proclaimed a single party with the 1978 Constitution, officially to avoid the drawbacks of tribal fractionism, SL gave itself a coalition government. However, the instability did not cease, generated among other things by the recurrent economic embezzlement practices, which involved ministers and public officials. In 1981 it was necessary to resort to a state of emergency to deal with a vast movement of strikes and social unrest. Protests were repeated again in 1984 and 1985, especially among students and professors. President S. Stevens, in power since 1968, decided to retire in 1985 (he died on May 29, 1989) and, frustrating the expectations of his two deputies, he chose gen. JS Momoh, who was unanimously named as presidential candidate by the All-People’s Congress (APC). Momoh was elected president in October 1985 by universal suffrage and took office in November. The SL thus proceeded to a kind of agreed transfer of power to the army, although Momoh, while maintaining the status and ranks of military, formed a government entirely of civilians. The subsequent parliamentary elections took place in 1986: 335 candidates competed for the 105 seats up for grabs, all from the APC, the single party. In 1987 an attempted coup d’état was reported, attributed to the senior management of the first vice-president, F. Minah, sentenced to death along with other conspirators. Corruption was elevated to a criminal offense in the framework of an economic and financial recovery program, which did not, however, immediately give concrete results; austerity measures and for increased productivity caused prices to rise, arousing constant gasps of protest. Faithful to the policy of non-alignment, SL in the meantime strengthened relations with neighboring countries, concluding a three-party agreement of cooperation and non-aggression with Guinea and Liberia in 1986 and signing, also in 1986, a series of economic and cultural agreements with Nigeria.
In 1991 Momoh, unexpectedly, abandoned the ever-defending one-party policy, introduced a new Constitution that recognized multi-partyism and called free elections, but the transition was abruptly interrupted on April 30, 1992 by a coup d’état of young officers headed by cap. VEM Strasser. All political activity was suspended. Power was concentrated in a Supreme Council of State and a Council of Secretaries of State with civilians and military personnel. According to a commitment formally made by Strasser in 1993, the restoration of a democratic and pluralist government is expected within three years. Since 1991 a guerrilla movement has been active which is headed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which is allegedly linked with one of the factions of the ongoing war in neighboring Liberia.