Kailahun is the capital of
Kailahun District 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 , Sierra ...
. 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 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, educational an ...
(320 miles by road), about 51 miles north east of
Kenema (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 its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...
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 u ...
of the
Sierra Leone Creole people 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 of the
Sierra Leone People's Party (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 environments, ...
with 75% of the vote. The candidate of the
People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) came in distance second, followed by the candidate of the
All People's Congress (APC). Nyuma replaced fellow SLPP member
Augustine Kortu 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 broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
, 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 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