​The name Kissi Bendu comprises the three Kissi Chiefdoms: Kissi Teng, Kissi Tongi and Kissi Kama Chiefdoms which are all located in the extreme eastern part of Kailahun District, Eastern Province, Sierra Leone. Kissi Bendu is about two hundred and forty miles (240 miles or 384 kilometers) away from Freetown the capital of Sierra Leone. It is bounded on the west by the district headquarter chiefdom, Luawa. To the north and northeast by the Republic of Guinea and southeast by the Republic of Liberia. The area has an elevation of 200m (656ft) above sea level.
The Kissi Bendu Community derived its name from the ethnicity of the inhabitants. The original inhabitants of Kissi Bendu were migrants who came from the Republic of Guinea which were predominantly of the Kissi People. Over the years however, Kissi Bendu has a heterogeneous society with the Kissi’s being the most dominant ethnic group.

On an average there were four major towns in the Kissi Bendu Community: Koindu, Buedu, Kangama and Dia, The last three all serving as chiefdom headquarters. While Koindu, which was the biggest town in the entire community, serves as the Headquarter Town for the three chiefdoms-Kissi Teng, Kissi Tongi and Kissi Kama (Kissi Bendu) and at the same time hosted the international market on Sundays and is home to the first established secondary school ever in the community-Kissi Bendu Secondary School which carries the compound name of the three chiefdoms.  B​efore the war, Koindu was a very peaceful, lively, beautiful and a prosperous town.  Because of its strategic  location and the international market, Koindu was a major contributor to the national revenue.  As small as Koindu was compared to the mejor cities in the country, it had no unemployment problems, because its citizens were engaged in agriculture and business.  The kissi bendu secondary school was one of the best secondary schools in the region, equipped with well-trainned staffs with facilities attracting students from the whole region including towns with secondary school.

After more than ten years of a savage civil war, Sierra Leone is on the long road to recovery.  The country was devastated by the civil war led by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone.  The war is said to have been one of the cruelest wars in modern history. In March of 1991, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel forces invaded Koindu and the entire community which eventually forced the community members to flee for their lives and lived as refugees in neighboring Republic of Guinea which is only about 2.5 miles away. During the invasion both the primary and secondary schools and other social infrastructures were virtually destroyed. The RUF used the ruins of the secondary school as its first training base for a number of years. Classrooms rafters, books and furniture were gradually used as fuel for fire couple with houses.  Most of the buildings still lie in ruins.  Very little or no help comes to Koindu and the entire community.

Kissi Bendu which used to be the hob of agricultural and economic activities in eastern Sierra Leone now faces some of the greatest challenges in the country in terms of development and resettlement of the populace after long years of civil war. Kissi Bendu Community of all the communities in Sierra Leone, sustained by far the highest notch of destruction and human displacement either within Sierra Leone or over to neighboring Liberia or Guinea.
As a former rebel stronghold under rebel control throughout the civil war, Kissi Bendu was also the last community to be disarmed, in 2001. The Kissi Bendu Community was the last to be declared safe for facilitated resettlement due to the civil war and frequent border incursions from Liberia, and to date Yenga is still being occupied by the Guinean troops harassing the locals on a daily basis as far as Koindu and its environs making the development programs in Koindu impossible.​

It should be bound in our minds that, the recovery process will take time but we must achieve it if we firmly have the interest of our birth place at heart and soul. Obviously, the resumption of the wide range of past basic social services like good education and health, coupled with economic activities so that our returned families have the means or re-establishing their livelihoods. As sons and daughters of the community as well as well-wishers, our focus should be on building trust and unity, decreasing fear and stigmatization, and help to unite families, ex-combatants and their larger communities; helps stimulate the economy, food security and job creation in the common cause of Kissi Bendu Community development. This was the essence for the establishment of the Kissi Bendu Cooperation International as a non-profit and not governmental organization.

“Although there are numerous frustrations that rear their ugly heads whenever we think about the challenges that lie ahead, we will never cease to plan for a better future for Kissi Bendu. Progress is our hope, the route that will take us there is that of reason, knowledge, unity, freedom and justice."