Another article from the Independent Online.
"On the pristine sands of Freetown's expansive beaches, there's a smattering of bikini-clad Europeans lapping up the African sun. If this were Tunisia, Morocco or even the Ivory Coast there might be little else to say. But in Sierra Leone it is a sight few people thought they would ever witness again. The country's brutal civil war, characterised by the mutilation of the arms and legs of innocent civilians, left 50,000 dead. Millions more have had their lives uprooted as rebel soldiers, high on drugs and alcohol, battled it out with government troops in a conflict many believed would never end. At the height of the killings the Foreign Office warned Britons to stay away.
But now the British government has revised its advice, declaring most of Sierra Leone to be "trouble-free". This has prompted tour operators to start to advertise the country as an adventure holiday destination of a lifetime in the hope of attracting back the 30,000 or so mostly British and French visitors who used to visit Sierra Leone each year before the war. Most of the sun-worshippers lying on the Freetown beach work for the international charities that have been helping to put the country back on its feet. But one or two are genuine holidaymakers taking full advantage of a tropical paradise that is just six hours flying time away from Britain"
For the full article please go to:
http://travel.independent.co.uk/africa/article344624.ece
or discuss at http://forum.visitsierraleone.org/forum_posts.asp?TID=1144&PN=1
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