Turkey has an embassy in Freetown since February 2018 and Sierra Leone has an embassy in Ankara since January 2020.

[1] Sierra Leone and Turkey historically have had tense relations until recently.

[2] Turkey denounced Sierra Leone under Foday Sankoh,[2] a Sierra Leonean who had trained as a guerrilla in Libya, because Foday Sankoh’s regime systematically turned children[3] into murderers, force them to perform ritual cannibalism[2] after amputating civilians’ arms[2] and legs.

To top it off, Foday Sankoh had been supplying cut-rate diamonds to al Qaeda, which Turkey classified as a terrorist organization, for resale in Europe.

Turkey participated in the 6,000-man UN peacekeeping force, even though safety was not restored for a very long time.