River in West Africa
The Mano River is a river in West Africa . It originates in the Guinea Highlands in Liberia and forms part of the Liberia-Sierra Leone border .[ 3]
The districts through which the river flows include the Parrot's Beak area of Guinea , Liberia's Lofa County and the Kono and Kailahun District of Sierra Leone. Diamond 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 , First Liberian Civil War , Second Liberian Civil War ).
Liberia and Sierra Leone founded the Mano River Union in 1973.[ 4] Guinea joined in 1980. It was reactivated in 2004 as a customs and economic union; Côte d'Ivoire joined in 2008.[ 5]