ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Sierra Leone. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Sierra Leone. Disarmament was well under way in Sierra Leone at the end of the year as preparations continued ahead of elections scheduled for May 2002. The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone had reached its full capacity of 17,500 troops as the largest peacekeeping operation in the world and was deployed throughout the countryside to collect weapons. Sierra Leone has vast resources of diamonds, but smuggling and war have turned it into one of the world's poorest countries. The economy in 2001, however, grew about 6 percent, up from 3.8 percent in 2000, because of relative peace.
