The Mano River Union (MRU) is an international association established in 1973 between Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 1980, Guinea joined the union. The goal of the Union was to foster economic cooperation among the countries. It is named for the Mano River which begins in the Guinea highlands and forms a border between Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Due to conflicts involving the countries the objectives of the Union could not be achieved (see Sierra Leone Civil War, First Liberian Civil War, Second Liberian Civil War). However, on May 20, 2004, the Union was reactivated at a summit of the three leaders of the Mano River Union states, Presidents Lansana Conté of Guinea, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Chairman Gyude Bryant of Liberia.
On April 1, 2008, Cote d'Ivoire agreed to join the union during a state visit by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
President Johnson-Sirleaf is currently the chair of the MRU.
Famous quotes containing the words river and/or union:
“There are knives that glitter like altars
In a dark church
Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
To be healed.
There’s a woden block where bones are broken,
Scraped clean—a river dried to its bed”
—Charles Simic (b. 1938)
“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.””
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)