Kissidougou

Kissidougou
Sub-prefecture and town
Kissidougou market on a quiet day.
Kissidougou
Coordinates: 09°11′0″N 10°6′0″W / 9.18333°N 10.10000°W / 9.18333; -10.10000Coordinates: 09°11′0″N 10°6′0″W / 9.18333°N 10.10000°W / 9.18333; -10.10000
Country	Guinea
Region	Faranah Region
Prefecture	Kissidougou Prefecture
Population (2014 census)
• Total	102,675

Kissidougou is a city in southern Guinea. It is the capital of in the Kissidougou Prefecture. Following intensified conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia during the fall and winter of 2000, many people from the city of Guéckédou fled to Kissidougou and stayed. As of 2014 it had a population of 102,675 people.

The town is served by Kissidougou Airport.

Founded in the eighteenth century, the city is known for the coffee plantations and large expanses of nearby forest. Other attractions in the city include a museum, a football team and a major bridge.

Although the market is open 7 days a week, it is especially busy on Tuesdays. The word Kissidougou means a place of refuge in the language of the Kissi, the largest local ethnic group.

The musician Mory Kanté is from Kissidougou.

Besides the dominant Kissi, there are many other ethnic groups living in Kissidougou, including the Malinké and Fula. Many Loma people live in this region as well, especially between Kissidougou and Macenta.

Throughout the 1990s, the government of Guinea, in cooperation with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), provided international protection and assistance to Sierra Leonian and Liberian refugees residing along Guinea’s southern border. In December 2000 and January 2001, a series of cross border attacks resulted in a massive shift in refugee (and Guinean) populations. Many fled to the Kissidougou and N'Zérékoré Prefectures in the Forest Region of Guinea. In February 2001, relocation of the Gueckédou and Faranah camps began with the transfer of temporary refugee settlements to new camps in the Albadariah sub-prefecture of Kissidougou.