Sierra Leone
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The armed forces remained on the sideline during the 2007 presidential election, but still look to the UN Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL) - a civilian UN mission - to support efforts to consolidate peace. The new government's priorities include furthering development, creating jobs, and stamping out endemic corruption. As domestic fighting among disparate ethnic groups, rebel groups, warlords, and youth gangs in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone gradually abate, the number of refugees in border areas has begun to slowly dwindle; UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) has maintained over 4,000 peacekeepers in Sierra Leone since 1999; Sierra Leone considers excessive Guinea's definition of the flood plain limits to define the left bank boundary of the Makona and Moa rivers and protests Guinea's continued occupation of these lands including the hamlet of Yenga occupied since 1998. Source: The Places Factbook, CIA. |
Democracy
is slowly being reestablished after the civil war from 1991 to 2002 that
resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2
million people (about one-third of the population). The military, which took
over full responsibility for security following the departure of UN peacekeepers
at the end of 2005, is increasingly developing as a guarantor of the country's
stability.