Diamond trafficking in Africa

The diamond world trade amounts to 68 billions of dollars. Half of the market is provided by Africa with gems which are considered as the most beautiful by the Anvers’ experts, the diamond’s capital. The main extracting states from the continent are South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
This geological wealth is far from doing the happiness of these countries. It can be seen as a curse by some populations. A recent study from the World Bank showed that the great majority of the 47 civil wars which have taken place on the continent between 1967 and 1999 was involving the control of mineral resources. Since the independence of the African states, the diamond’s areas, controlled by the colons before, have been the target of violent fights during the ethnical and political conflicts which have occurred. The rebel groups try to take over the diamond’s mines so as to get important incomes which allow them to buy weapons, and fund their fight. This scheme is in the heart of the conflict which has taken place in Angola since 1975. After the independence from Portugal, the state fell in the hand of the Marxist movement MPLA of the president Dos Santos. The UNITA of Jonas Savimbi started the rebellion and his war effort was largely paid by the diamonds sales. This conflict has lasted 27 years and made more than one million victims. This civil war would have occurred without the diamonds, but it would never have lasted so much time without the gems traffic which has given important supplies to the rebels. This scheme has been repeated several times in Africa, even if it has evolved the last few years. Although before the diamonds money was used to fund the rebellions, today the conflicts are motivated by the control of the mines and the search of profits. The movie Blood diamond has recently enlightened this situation throughout the drama in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002. During this period, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Foday Sankoh has ensured the control of diamonds areas while terrorising the population. The rebel army was doing loads of mutilations and used thousands of children soldiers. The first objective of this insurrection, which has made more than 100000 dead, was the profits search of the war lords. This was made thanks to the complicity of the De Beers company which was the easy buyer of the RUF’s diamonds.
Alerted since the mid-nineties by the NGO about the “blood diamonds” from Sierra Leone, the international community has decided to react at the beginning of 2OOO. The UN Security Council voted the 5th of July 2000 an embargo on the diamonds from Sierra Leone and from the neighbour Liberia, because the ex Liberian president Charles Taylor allowed the RUF to export their gems from his country. Liberia was therefore exporting 50 times more diamonds than what they were producing. The former dictator is currently judged by a Special Court for Sierra Leone in La Haye, for his support to the rebels and their violences. The fall of Charles Taylor and the free elections in 2002 in Sierra Leone let us hope a stabilisation in this hurt region.
To fight back the spreading of war diamonds, which fund terrible conflicts, numerous states have signed the Kimberley process ignited by South Africa. This agreement, entered into force in 2003 has been ratified by 71 states by now. On the terms of this international treaty, the extracted diamonds can’t be exported or imported without a certificate made by the exporting country so as to ensure the source of each gem. The World Diamond Council says that with this new system 99% of the diamonds in circulation are “clean”, against 95% in the past. Other sources still claim that 5 to 15% of the sold stones are used to fund civil wars, which represent several hundreds of millions to one billion of dollars.
Even with these precautions the eternal stone trafficking still exists in Africa where the boarders are particularly easy to cross. Moreover, this trade allows millions of workers to live and represents an important part of African economy.
The modern history of Africa can’t be understood without the one of the diamond. The control of the diamonds mines is the purpose of numerous conflicts which have hurt the continent since the wave of independences. The recent actions of the international community have shown some positive effects. Nevertheless, it remains efforts to do in order to eliminate diamond trafficking in Africa, which has not disappeared.

Some numbers:
65% of the diamond world production comes from African countries, for a value of more than 8 billions of dollars per year.
Sierra Leone has exported 142 millions of dollars of diamond in 2005.
The diamond sector employs 25% of the workers in Botswana and is worth 33% of its PIB.
In Namibia, the diamond extracting industry is the second employer behind the state.