Angola Reports estimated that as much as 21% of the total diamond production in the 1980s was being sold for illegal and unethical purposes, and 19% was specifically
conflict in nature. By 1999, the illegal diamond trade was estimated by the
World Diamond Council to have been reduced to 4% of the world's diamond production. The World Diamond Council reported that by 2004 this percentage had fallen to approximately 1% and up to today, the World Diamond Council refers to this illegal trade to be virtually eliminated, meaning that more than 99% of diamonds being sold have a legal background. Despite the UN Resolution,
UNITA was able to continue to sell or trade some diamonds to finance its war effort. The UN set out to find how this remaining illicit trade was being conducted and appointed Canadian ambassador
Robert Fowler to investigate. In 2000, he produced the
Fowler Report, which named those countries, organizations, and individuals involved in the trade. The report is credited with establishing the link between diamonds and third world conflicts, and led directly to
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1295, as well as the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). Still, after the report was published in 2013, smugglers from these African countries were selling blood diamonds through less sophisticated channels, such as social media posts. Rhinestones from Angola, produced by UNITA, were being traded to Cameroon for the acquisition of a Cameroonian certificate of naturalization to then be sold as legitimate.
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast began to develop a fledgling diamond mining industry in the early 1990s. A
coup overthrew the government in 1999, starting a civil war. The country became a route for exporting diamonds from Liberia and war-torn Sierra Leone. Foreign investment began to withdraw from Ivory Coast. To curtail the illegal trade, the nation stopped all diamond mining, and the
UN Security Council banned all exports of diamonds from the Ivory Coast in December 2005. This ban lasted about ten years, but it was lifted in April 2014 when members of the UN council voted to suspend the sanctions. The Kimberley process officials also notified in November 2013 that the Ivory Coast was producing artisanal diamonds.
Democratic Republic of Congo The
Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly
Zaire) has suffered numerous looting wars in the 1990s, but has been a member of the Kimberley Process since 2003 and now exports about 8% of the world's diamonds. since there have been multiple cases of fake Kimberley certificates accompanying the gems. One of
De Beers' most celebrated diamonds, the D-colour
Millennium Star, was discovered in the DRC and sold to De Beers, in open competition with other diamond buyers, between 1991 and 1992.
Liberia From 1989 to 2003,
Liberia was engaged in
a civil war. In 2000, the UN accused Liberian president
Charles G. Taylor of supporting the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) insurgency in neighboring
Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds. In 2001, the
United Nations applied sanctions on the Liberian diamond trade. In August 2003, Taylor stepped down as president and, after being exiled to
Nigeria, faced trial in
The Hague. On July 21, 2006, he pleaded not guilty to
crimes against humanity and
war crimes, Around the time of the
1998 United States embassy bombings,
al-Qaeda allegedly bought gems from Liberia as some of its other financial assets were frozen. Having regained peace, Liberia is attempting to construct a legitimate diamond mining industry. The UN has lifted sanctions, and Liberia is now a member of the KPCS. In December 2014, however, Liberian diamonds were reported to be partly
produced using child labor according to the
US Department of Labor's
List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.
Sierra Leone The
Sierra Leone Civil War lasted from 1991 to 2002, costing an estimated 50,000 lives and causing local people to suffer killings, mutilation, rape, torture, and abduction, mainly due to the brutal warfare waged by the rebel group the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The RUF claimed that they supported the causes of justice and democracy in the beginning, but later, they started to control the villages and prevent local people from voting for the new government by chopping off their limbs. Victims included children and infants. It created numerous examples of physical and psychological harm across Sierra Leone. Moreover, they occupied the diamond mines to get access to funding and continued support for their actions. For example, during that time, RUF was mining up to $125 million of diamonds yearly. Since diamonds are used as a funding source, they also create opportunities for tax evasion and financial support of crime. Therefore, the United Nations Security Council imposed diamond sanctions in 2000, which were lifted in 2003. According to
National Geographic News, all these civil wars and conflicts created by rebel groups resulted in over four million deaths in the African population and injuries to over two million civilians. Another conflict diamond statistic from Statistic Brain revealed that Sierra Leone has been listed as the second highest in the production of conflict diamonds, which is shown as 1% of the world's production, after Angola, which produced 2.1% in 2016. 15% of Sierra Leone's diamond production is conflict diamonds. It shows that the production of conflict diamonds still exists in Sierra Leone. According to the US's 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of Africa, serious human rights issues still exist in Sierra Leone, even though the 11-year civil conflict had officially ended by 2002. Sierra Leone remains in an unstable political situation, although the country has elected a new government. The immense consequences of blood diamonds remain a mainstream issue in Sierra Leone. One of the biggest issues is that people are still being abused by the security forces, including rape and the use of excessive force on detainees, including teenagers. Child abuse and child labor are other serious issues that took place in Sierra Leone after the civil conflicts. As they needed a large number of workers, the security forces started kidnapping and forcing young adults to be their slaves; children were forced to join their army as soldiers, and women were raped. They even burned entire villages. Thousands of men, women, and children are used as slaves to collect diamonds, and they are forced to use their bare hands instead of tools to dig in mud along river banks. A report from
Global Witness, "The Truth About Diamonds: Conflict and Development", mentioned that Sierra Leone is listed as second from the bottom of the
United Nations Human Development Index. It also showed that Sierra Leone was still making slow progress, in 2016, in such different aspects as education, health, and human rights, since 1990, which is also the year that conflicts took place in Sierra Leone. It shows that it is a huge consequence of the blood diamonds that they brought into the country, even though the war had ended in 2002, and the government tried to improve and adjust the cooperation of the diamond industry. Sierra Leone resulted in an increase of over US$140 million in 2005 and attempted a percentage return of export tax to diamond mining communities. However, it does not improve anythingthe money is not reaching the public, and it has not benefitted anyone in the communities. For instance, the
Kono District in Sierra Leone has been mined for 70 years, but there are still no basic facilities, like electricity and well-maintained roads. Houses are destroyed because of civil wars. It also examines the ethical issues of how rebel groups treat the locals. They used brainwashing of inexperienced young children and forced them to be child soldiers as they lost their personal freedom and rights under a command that included violence and intimidation.
Republic of Congo The
Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) was expelled from the Kimberley Process in 2004
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe diamonds are not considered conflict diamonds by the KPCS. In July 2010, the KPCS agreed that diamonds from the country's disputed
Marange Diamond Fields could be sold on the international market, after a report from the Scheme's monitor a month earlier described diamonds mined from the fields as
conflict-free.
Central African Republic The
Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the world's largest producers of rough diamonds. In 2010, it ranked 14th in the world by volume and 12th in the world by value; consequently, diamonds have played a significant role in the country's ongoing conflicts. The
2001 Central African Republic coup attempt and subsequent unrest were put down by Congolese rebel leader
Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was subsequently able to finance the continuation of the
Second Congo War by laundering Congolese conflict diamonds through the CAR. The CAR was a founding member of the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) in 2003; however, it was suspended for two months that same year following the takeover of General
François Bozizé in the
2003 Central African Republic coup d'état. It was un-suspended following the President's assurances that the country would work towards reduction of the conflict diamond trade; in response, the CAR formed a government body, BEDCOR, to certify diamonds as compliant with the scheme in conjunction with the
USAID Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development Project. The initiative was not completely successful, however, and insurgent groups in the country continued to fund operations using conflict diamonds. Following the rise of the
Séléka alliance in 2013 during the
Central African Republic Civil War, the Kimberley Process suspended the CAR from the KPCS by administrative decision on 23 May 2013. A second Kimberley Process administrative decision on 11 July 2014 was enacted with the intent of reducing diamond smuggling from the country. Following the
2015–16 Central African general election and the beginnings of stabilisation in the southwest regions of the country, the KPCS suspension of diamond exports from eight
sub-prefectures of the Central African Republic was lifted, and legal diamond production gradually returned. Even so, however, problems with conflict diamonds continue to exist in the CAR; the
Wagner Group paramilitary forces, who were brought into the country in 2018 to stabilise the southwest region, have been linked to conflict minerals, and illicit diamond smuggling into
Cameroon remains a concern. Despite this, the demand for illicit diamonds from the CAR has been significantly reduced due to the international nature of the diamond trade and the requirements of the KPCS, causing rebel groups to turn to gold mining as a source of income instead. ==Conflict diamond campaign==