The Eastern Province is one of the four provinces 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 ...

. It covers an area of 15,553 km² and has a population of 1,641,012 (2015

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

). Its capital and administrative centre is

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 ...

. Eastern Province, the centre of the country's diamond mining industry, is very mountainous and has two ranges, the Gola Hills and the Loma Mountains.

Economy

The Eastern Province is the heart of

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, b ...

mining activity. The precious stone was first discovered in around the 1930s, and has played a major part in the region's history ever since. Most diamonds are mined and exported by small local enterprises, numbering around 200,000 to 300,000; some of these are illegal, while many are officially sanctioned. Additionally, there are a handful of foreign countries carrying out larger scale diamond mining.

Geography

The Eastern Province borders the Nzérékoré Region of

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

to the northeast, the

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� ...

n counties of Lofa, Gbarpolu and Grand Cape Mount to the east and south, and the Sierra Leonian

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

and

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

provinces to the west and northwest. Eastern Province is the only region of Sierra Leone without any shoreline. The province is home to the Gola Hills, a tract of

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

with fauna including

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative t ...

s, western red colobus, many endemic species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

, and a sparse population of

pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It ha ...

. The other main area of wilderness is the

Loma Mountains The Loma Mountains are the highest mountain range in Sierra Leone. The highest peak is Mount Bintumani which rises to a height of . The area has been designated a non-hunting forest reserve since 1952. The reserve covers an area of 33,201 hectar ...

, which lie mostly in the Northern Province, but also extend into the northern part of the Eastern Province.

Districts

The province is divided into 3 districts. They are:

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 ...

, based around the city of Kailahun;

Kenema District Kenema District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital city, capital and largest city is Kenema, which is the third most populous city in Sierra Leone, after Freetown and Bo. Tongo is the second most populous city ...

, which is headquartered by the provincial capital

; and

Kono District Kono District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Koidu Town. Motema is the second most populous city in the district. The other major towns in the district include Yengema, Tombodu, Jaiama N ...

Economy

Geography

Districts

Religion

See also

References

Cited works

External links