News Excerpt:

 A nationwide curfew has been declared in Sierra Leone after gunmen attacked the country's main and largest military barracks in the capital city.

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• The attack raised fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region.
• Sierra Leone has been going through a political crisis since the presidential and general elections in June 2023.
• West Africa's regional economic bloc ECOWAS — of which Sierra Leone is a member — described the incident as a plot to acquire arms and disturb the peace and constitutional order in the country.
• The bloc has, in recent months, tried to reverse the surge in coups in West and Central Africa, which has recorded eight military takeovers since 2020, the latest in Niger and Gabon this year.

Sierra Leone (Republic of Sierra Leone)

• It is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa.
• The capital, Freetown, commands one of the world’s largest natural harbours.
• It is bordered on the north and east by Guinea, on the south by Liberia, and the west by the Atlantic Ocean.
• Sierra Leone has a tropical climate with a diverse environment ranging from savanna to rainforests.
• Although most of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture, Sierra Leone is also a mining centre. Its land yields diamonds, gold, bauxite, and rutile (titanium dioxide).