Mano River

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]

Mano
Mano River
Location
Countries	Sierra Leone Liberia
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Guinea Highlands, Sierra Leone
Mouth
• location	Atlantic Ocean
Length	320 km (200 mi)[1]
Basin size	7,634 km2 (2,948 sq mi)[2]
Discharge
• location	Near mouth
• average	(Period: 1979–2015) 11.22 km3/a (356 m3/s)[2] (Period: 1971–2000) 369.8 m3/s (13,060 cu ft/s)[1]
Basin features
River system	Mano River

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]