Sierra Leone
Updated: Sep 16, 2022
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Country Name
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, informally Salone.
Location
Sierra Leone is located in Western Africa. Sierra Leone is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Guinea to the north and east, and Liberia to the south.
Capital
Freetown.
Flag
Sierra Leone's flag was adopted on April 27, 1961, after gaining independence from Great Britain.
The flag consists of three horizontal stripes green, white and blue.
The green stripe is on the top, the white in the middle, and the
blue at the bottom.
The Green color represents the rich nature, mountains, and agriculture in the country, the white color stands for peace and unity.
The blue represents the Atlantic Ocean, which washes the shores of Sierra Leone.
Language
English is the official language in Sierra Leone.
There exist 23 languages that are used in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone's many different communities have their native languages or variations of languages that they predominantly use for communication.
Krio is the de facto national language and a lingua franca spoken widely by 97% of the population. It is the Creole language based on English and is the mother tongue of the residents.
Other languages used in the country include Mende, Temne, and Limba. The second widely used language in the country after Krio is the Mende language.
Religion
Sierra Leone is officially a secular state, although Islam and Christianity are the two main religions in the country. Islam is the religion of the majority in Sierra Leone. About 78% of the country’s population are Muslims.
Muslims in Sierra Leone are primarily Sunnis of the Maliki school. Only a small percentage of Muslims, adhere to the Ahmadiyya sect, while a smaller percentage belongs to the Shia community.
The second most popular religion is Christianity and followers of this religion account for 20.9% of the total population.
Most of them are Protestants with large populations of Evangelical Protestants and Methodists, and a small number of people adhere to Roman Catholics.
Other Christian denominations like Anglicans, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others constitute only a small percentage of the Christian population of the country.
Other beliefs including traditional African religions have a small percentage of followers in the country.
Currency
Leone (SLL).
Time Zone
+00:00 GMT.
Government Regime
Unitary presidential constitutional republic.
Climate
In Sierra Leone, the climate is tropical, and hot all year round, with a dry season in winter and a rainy season due to the African monsoon, which runs from May to November in the north and from April to November in the south. Winter in Sierra Leone is hot and sunny: night-time temperatures are around 22/24 °C along the coast and 18/20 °C in the interior, while daytime temperatures are around 30 °C on the coast and 32/34 °C in the interior.
Sometimes, the temperature can reach 38/40 °C even in winter, but luckily, the air is quite dry because of the prevailing wind, the Harmattan. On the contrary, during the night, the temperature can get a little cool, especially in inland areas, where it can drop to around 10 °C, while in the mountains, it can even get cold. Starting from February, the temperature rises, under the influence of the tropical sun, but then the rains come quite soon.
The best time to visit Sierra Leone is winter, in December and January in inland areas (because in February, it starts to get hot) and from December to March along the coast, where the temperature is more stable. The worst months are those of summer, from July to September, when the rains, often torrential, create extensive flooding.