The Mano River is a river in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mau ...

. It originates in the Guinea Highlands in

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 ...

and forms part of the Liberia-

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 ...

Liberia–Sierra Leone border, border. The districts through which the river flows include the Parrot's Beak area of Guinea, Liberia's

Lofa County Lofa is a county in the northernmost portion of Liberia. One of 15 counties that constitute the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has nine districts. Voinjama serves as the capital with the area of the county measuring . ...

and the Kono and Kailahun District of Sierra Leone.

Diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

mining is a major industry in these areas. Control of the area's wealth and the instability of the national governments of all three countries led to a series of violent conflicts involving these districts in the 1990s (See

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 ...

, First Liberian Civil War,

Second Liberian Civil War The Second Liberian Civil War was a conflict in the West African nation of Liberia lasted from 1999 to 2003. It was preceded by the First Liberian Civil War, which ended in 1996. President Charles Taylor came to power in 1997 after victory in t ...

). Liberia and Sierra Leone founded the Mano River Union in 1973. Guinea joined in 1980. It was reactivated in 2004 as a customs and economic union; Côte d'Ivoire joined in 2008.

References

Rivers of Guinea Rivers of Liberia Rivers of Sierra Leone Liberia–Sierra Leone border International rivers of Africa Border rivers {{SierraLeone-river-stub