Kailahun is the capital of

Kailahun District Kailahun District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital city, capital and largest city is the town of Kailahun. The second most populous city in the district is Segbwema. Other major towns in Kailahun District inclu ...

in the Eastern Province of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

. Kailahun is a major business and commercial center of Kailahun District. The population was 13,108 in the 2004 census, a 2006 estimate of 18,41

and a current estimate of about 30,411. Kailahun lies in the far east of Sierra Leone, approximately 200 miles east of

Freetown Freetown is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educ ...

(320 miles by road), about 51 miles north east of

Kenema Kenema is the third largest city in Sierra Leone (after Freetown and Bo), and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province. It is the capital of Kenema District and a major economic center of the Eastern Province. At the 2015 national cen ...

(75 miles by road), and near the border of

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast� ...

br>
Kailahun is a trade center, and is one of the major towns in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The population of Kailahun is largely from the Mende people, Mende ethnic group. As with most parts of Sierra Leone, the

Krio language Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 96 percent of the country's population, and it uni ...

of the

Sierra Leone Creole people The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of ...

is by far the most widely spoken language in Kailahun and is the primary means of communication in the city.

Government

The town is home to Kailahun district council and the District Council Hall. David Keili Coomber is the town chief of Kailahun. Kailahun, along with the entire Kailahun District is governed with a district council form of government, which is headed by a District Council Chairman, who is responsible for the general management of the town and for seeing that all local and national laws are enforced. The District Council Chairman is elected directly by the residents of the district of Kailahun. The current chairman of Kailahun district council is

Tom Nyuma Tom Nyuma (died January 26, 2014) was a Sierra Leonean military commander and the chairman of the Kailahun District council. He was elected as chairman of Kailahun District council on July 6, 2008 with 87% of the vote running on the opposition Sie ...

of the

Sierra Leone People's Party The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, along with its main political rival the All People's Congress (APC). It has been the ruling party in Sierra Leone since April 4, 2018. The SLPP d ...

(SLPP). Nyuma won the July 2008 Sierra Leone local council elections in a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environmen ...

with 75% of the vote. The candidate of the

People's Movement for Democratic Change The People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) is a liberal party in Sierra Leone. It is a breakaway faction of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). It was officially registered on 19 January 2006. The party is led by Charles Margai, the ...

(PMDC) came in distance second, followed by the candidate of the

All People's Congress The All People's Congress (APC) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, the other being its main political rival the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). The APC has been the main opposition party in Sierra Leone since 4 Ap ...

(APC). Nyuma replaced fellow SLPP member

Augustine Kortu Augustine Kortu (born in Kailahun, Kailahun District, Sierra Leone) is a Sierra Leonean politician. He was Kailahun District Council chairman and mayor of Kailahun until July 2008. He is from the Kissi ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnici ...

who was the District Council Chairman until July 2008. Kortu is from the minority Kissi ethnic group.

Media

The local radio station in Kailahun is a private station Radio Moa - The Voice of the Voiceless on 101.5 FM] which operates from Radio House. The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) television and radio station, are on the air in Kailahun.

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

, and several other international TV stations are on the air in the city, via satellite.

Ethnicity

The population of Kailahun is largely from the Mende people, Mende. Minority ethnic groups with significant population are the Kissi, Kono, Sherbro and Vai.

Sport

Like the rest of the country,

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

is by far the most popular sport in the city. The city has several clubs in the lower divisions of the Sierra Leone football league.

Health

Kailahun is home to Kailahun Government Hospital which was refurbished after being damaged in the

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Char ...

and was reopened in 2004.

References

{{coord, 8, 16, 38, N, 10, 34, 26, W, region:SL-E_type:city(16000), display=title Populated places in Sierra Leone Eastern Province, Sierra Leone