- Freetown; 921,000 - 71,740 square kilometers (27,699 square
miles) - English, Mende, Temne, Krio - Muslim, indigenous
beliefs, Christian - Life Expectancy: - GDP per Capita: - U.S.
$500 - Literacy Percent: Sierra Leone Facts Flag Sierra Leone is
on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, with coastal swamps rising
to interior plateaus and mountains. Named "lion mountain" by a
15th-century Portuguese explorer, Sierra Leone was a British
colony from the early 19th century until 1961. In the 1990s
democratically elected leaders were overthrown but subsequently
regained power, and major hostilities have demoralized the
population and destabilized the economy. In 2002 Sierra Leone
emerged from a decade of civil war, with the help of some 17,000
UN peacekeepers. - Industry: Mining (diamonds); small-scale
manufacturing (beverages, textiles); petroleum refining -
Agriculture: Rice, coffee, cacao, palm kernels; poultry; fish -
Exports: Diamonds, rutile, cacao, coffee —Text From National
Geographic Atlas of the World, Eig