Sierra Leone was discovered by Portuguese sailors who gave the country its name (Portuguese: Lion Mountains). The country was a British colony and became independent in 1961 with Sir Milton Margai (1895-1964) as the first prime minister.
Since 1991, civil war between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (
RUF) has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (well over one-third of the population) many of whom are now refugees in neighboring countries. A peace agreement, signed on 7 July 1999 in Lome (
Togo), offers a dim hope that the country will be able to terminate the diamond-powered conflict, and rebuild its devastated economy and infrastructure. As of late 1999, up to 6,000 UN peacekeepers were in the process of deploying to bolster the peace accord.
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