Yomou is a town located in southeastern Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

. It is the capital of Yomou Prefecture

Yomou Prefecture

Yomou is a prefecture located in the Nzérékoré Region of Guinea. The capital and principal town of the prefecture is Yomou. The prefecture covers an area of 6,000 km.² and has an estimated population of 87,000....

. It has an estimated population of 29,138 (2008) growing from 9,661 (1996).

Youmou is the chief market town for the densely forested region of the Guinea Highlands

Guinea Highlands

The Guinea Highlands is a densely forested mountainous plateau extending from the southern Fouta Djallon highlands in southeastern Guinea through to northern Sierra Leone and Liberia, and northwestern Côte d'Ivoire ....

. Main commodities sold in the town include rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, cassava

Cassava

Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...

, coffee,palm oil and kernels. The town is inhabited mainly inhabited by the Guerze (Kpelle) and Mano (or Manon) peoples. The surrounding area borders Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

 to the east.

A number of refugees crossed the border to Yomou during the First and Second Liberian Civil War

Second Liberian Civil War

The Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999 when a rebel group backed by the government of neighbouring Guinea, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy , emerged in northern Liberia. In early 2003, a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, emerged in the south, and...

s, accounting for its recent growth.