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The west African state of Sierra Leone was founded by the British in 1787 for Africans freed from slavery. The terrain rises from coastal lowlands to mountains in the northeast. A democratic government took office in 1996 against a background of bloody rebellion. Sierra Leone soon plunged back into a savage civil war. Though a 1999 peace agreement was short-lived, an ECOWAS-brokered accord signed in late 2000 seems to be holding.