Brief facts sheet of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is situated just above middle Africa on the west coast, with borders toward Liberia. The country was a British colony which won independence on April 27, 1961.

Sierra Leone has the worst life expectancy rates (38 years on average), the lowest adult literacy rates and the highest percentage of total population living on less than US$140 per year.

The population is estimated to be between 4.5 and 5.5 million, up from about 4.1 million in 1990.

Over 44% of the Sierra Leone population is under 14 years of age with a median age in the country of 17.9 years

The Cruel Civil War of Sierra Leone

A peace agreement was signed between the rebels and the government of Sierra Leone in July 1999 after a 8 year long civil conflict.

The war was cruel and had outspring in longterm poverty and horrible living conditions

“When the rebels reached the city, in a matter of days they are said to have amputated the limbs of around 1,500 people!” –Jeremy Vine in Freetown

By the end of 2001 185,000 Sierra Leonians were refuges and asylum seekers. 247,590 people remain registered as internally displaced in Sierra Leone.

Miatta & Samba and Lawyers for Human Rights

Miatta Samba contributed in the Botshabebelo refugee rights project, Sanctuary as a lawyers for human rights publication.

Focus was on reasons for the disaster, on Xenophobia, on refugee rights by international law and on how to prevent similar things from happening again.

Here is a link to Sanctuary, Lawyers for human rights publications where Miatta & Samba has contributed: http://www.lhr.org.za/refugee/nletter/v4i1.pdf

Miatta & Samba related articles and links:

General information about the Sierra Leone conflict
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/01/99/sierra_leone/251251.stm

Possibility for helping Africa by doing an African internship
http://www.africaninstitute.org/html/internships.html

THE “LEGACY” OF THE SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE uses an unpublished article of Miatta & samba

http://www.ictj.org/downloads/LegacyReport.pdf

The Official site of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
http://www.sc-sl.org/

From Miatta & Samba back to Unrelated Samba Articles

From Miatta & Samba back to Samba City.info