KISSIDOUGOU

town and administrative capital of Kissidougou region, southeastern Guinea, West Africa. It is located at the intersection of roads from Faranah, Guckdou, and Kankan. The town was founded in the 1890s as a French outpost in the campaigns against Samory Tour, the Malinke warrior-leader. The chief trading centre (rice, cassava, livestock, and palm oil and kernels) for the Kissi people of the Guinea Highlands, it is also the major collecting point for the forested Kissidougou region (area 3,424 sq mi [8,868 sq km]), which exports coffee and kola nuts. Kissidougou has a sawmill and a soft drink enterprise; it has also been a centre for alluvial diamond mining since the 1930s. It is the site of a hospital, a secondary school, and a Roman Catholic mission. Pop. (1977 prelim.) region, 160,000.