About Bonthe

District of the southern Province of Sierra Leone. The town had a population of 9,535 in the 2004 census, with a current estimate of 10,206. In colonial times it used to be a major trading centre for piassavaand other agricultural products.

The town lies on the eastern shore of Sherbro Island, on the Sherbro River estuary, and was once larger than Freetown, but lack of roads to the mainland meant that the population has declined. Bonthe is about 60 miles south-west of Bo and 187 miles south-east of Freetown. The inhabitants of the town belong mainly to the Sherbro ethnic group