A little smaller than South Carolina and home to 5 million people, Sierra Leone is a West African coastal country sandwiched between Guinea and Liberia. It is hot and humid, but with rain accumulations that reach 195 inches in summer, it's known as one of the wettest areas in coastal Africa. The winds from the Sahara are fierce, causing harsh sandstorms to blow through Sierra Leone from December through February.

The coast of Sierra Leone is mainly swampland. Further inland are dense jungles inhabited by a variety of creatures, including a dozen species of apes and chimpanzees. The jungles are also used by rebel forces as excellent concealment, and by displaced citizens forced to live in the wild after bloody civil wars resulted in the destruction of countless villages.

During the 1991 to 2002 civil war between the government and the Revolutionary United Front, more than one third of Sierra Leone's population became refugees. In an attempt to gain political power and control of Sierra Leone's lucrative diamond mines, rebel forces waged ruthless attacks against civilians: estimates run as high as 200,000 people murdered and thousands more subject to torture and rape. Still evident today are those who suffered under the rebellion: countless men, women and children with missing hands and whole limbs. Rebel forces like the West Side Boys used amputation by machete-yielding rebels.

The country's economic and social infrastructure has been so severely fractured by 11 years of murder and mass mutilation, Sierra Leone was the target of the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping force. Though it has natural mineral, agricultural and fishing resources, Sierra Leone remains an exceptionally poor nation with high rates of unemployment and illiteracy.