Sierra Leone: The Lost Prominence of Pujehun District; A Story of War, Poverty, and Agricultural Decline

By Brima Sannoh (ATJLF/MRCG Fellow 2025)

Tucked away in the southernmost reaches of Sierra Leone lies Pujehun District, a region once celebrated for its thriving agricultural output and natural abundance. Fertile soil, reliable rainfall, and industrious farming communities once made Pujehun a symbol of rural self-sufficiency and prosperity. But that chapter now lies buried beneath layers of hardship, conflict, and neglect.The decade-long civil war ravaged Pujehun, destroying its infrastructure, displacing its people, and disrupting farming systems that had fed both local and neighboring populations. Fields went untended, livestock were lost, and the expertise of entire generations of farmers was either uprooted or forgotten. The war did not merely pause development; it reversed it.