It is bounded by Guinea to the north and east, by Libya to the southeast and by the Atlantic to the southwest. Its territory is made up of a vast, swampy coastal plain peppered with forests and broken only by a mountainous peninsula in the south. The plain stretches up to the foothills of the inland plateaus and mountains.
The climate is tropical, with a rainy season from May to December. The population mainly lives along the coast and is made up of a number of ethnic groups. The Mendé (in the centre and south) and the Temné (in the north) account for nearly half of the population. After these come other groups such as: the Limba, Kono, Fula, Kuranko, Kissi, etc.
Sierra Leone is an impoverished country, having low economic indices, unequal income distribution and a poorly developed social infrastructure. For these reasons the nation has not managed to overcome the devastation left by a cruel war that lasted for several years and ended in 1999. The country has significant mining and fishing resources, and their potential awaits its realisation.
