Blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds and less commonly as hot diamonds, are diamonds mined or traded in areas affected by armed conflict and used to finance rebel movements, insurgencies, or other armed groups. The term became widely associated with diamonds mined in the late 20th and early 21st centuries during civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau.Conflict Diamonds. United Nations Department of Public Information, March 21, 2001, archived online 23 October 2013."Conflict resources: from 'curse' to blessing" by Ernest Harsch. Africa Renewal: January 2007. Blood diamonds are also frequently smuggled by organized crime syndicates for sale on the black market. According to the Kimberley Process, 2023 global trade in rough diamonds totaled approximately 112 million carats. Similar terms, such as conflict resources and conflict minerals, are used for other natural resources exploited under comparable conditions.
Financing conflict
Diamonds and other valuable natural resources can sustain armed conflict by giving armed groups access to revenue. Political geographer Philippe Le Billon argues that resources may prolong or motivate warfare when they create lucrative opportunities for groups that might otherwise lack access to finance. In this context, global commodity prices are an inadequate proxy for a resource's value to armed groups. Location, method of extraction, and access to markets are also important. Diamonds are especially attractive because they have a high value relative to their weight and size, making them portable and comparatively easy to smuggle.
The type of diamond deposit also affects its role in conflict. Deep mining for gold, kimberlite diamonds, or other minerals usually requires capital-intensive facilities and technical expertise. Alluvial diamonds, by contrast, can often be extracted with simple tools once the surrounding land is controlled. This makes alluvial deposits easier for rebel groups or other armed actors to exploit. Research on Botswana and Sierra Leone has linked their differing experiences of stability and conflict to the distinction between primary and secondary diamond deposits.
Armed groups may also raise funds through future claims to natural resources. Michael Ross describes these arrangements as "booty futures": agreements in which rebels or governments obtain money in exchange for future rights to exploit resources. Ross cites examples involving diamonds and oil in conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Such arrangements can allow resources to finance conflict even before they are physically controlled or extracted.
These characteristics have led campaigners, policymakers, and diplomats to support regulatory measures intended to prevent natural resources from financing armed conflict. In the twelve years after the end of the Cold War, the United Nations Security Council passed resolutions imposing sanctions on resource exporters in ten conflicts.
History
The conflict diamond trade became a major international concern in the late 20th century, although estimates of its scale have varied over time. Reports cited by Partnership Africa Canada estimated that as much as 21% of global diamond production in the 1980s was sold for illegal or unethical purposes, with 19% specifically conflict-related. The prominence of diamonds in conflicts in Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo contributed to international efforts to regulate the rough diamond trade. The Kimberley Process began in 2000 and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme came into effect in 2003.
Angola
During the Angolan Civil War, UNITA used diamonds to help finance its war against the Angolan government. The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on UNITA, including measures intended to restrict its trade in diamonds. Despite these sanctions, UNITA continued to sell or trade diamonds to finance its war effort.
The United Nations appointed Canadian ambassador Robert Fowler to investigate how the sanctions were being circumvented. The resulting Fowler Report, released in 2000, identified countries, organizations, and individuals involved in sanctions violations and drew international attention to the role of diamonds in financing armed conflict. The report contributed to further Security Council action, including United Nations Security Council Resolution 1295, which was adopted on 18 April 2000 and concerned sanctions against UNITA.
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) had a small diamond industry. Partnership Africa Canada reported that although the industry had closed in the mid-1980s, Belgian records showed substantial diamond imports attributed to Ivory Coast in the mid-1990s. During the conflict in Ivory Coast, concerns over illicit diamond exports led the United Nations Security Council to impose a ban on imports of rough diamonds from the country in 2005. The ban was lifted in April 2014 after the Council noted progress toward implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. Despite the 2005 UN embargo, diamond mining and smuggling reportedly continued in rebel-held areas. A 2013 U.S. Geological Survey report found that artisanal, or small-scale, diamond mining had continued in Ivory Coast during the embargo, particularly in the diamond-producing areas of Séguéla and Tortiya.
Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as Zaire until 1997, has been affected by armed conflicts in which diamonds and other natural resources helped finance armed groups. Diamonds were among the mineral resources linked to the financing and prolongation of the conflict that began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has participated in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme since 2003. Concerns have nevertheless persisted about the exploitation of natural resources in the country, including diamonds, and their role in sustaining conflict.
Liberia
Liberia experienced two civil wars between 1989 and 2003. During the presidency of Charles Taylor, the United Nations accused Liberia of supporting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in neighbouring Sierra Leone, including through the trade in diamonds. In 2001, the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Liberia, including a ban on rough diamond imports, after finding that diamonds were helping to fuel the conflict in Sierra Leone. Separate reports also alleged that members of al-Qaeda bought diamonds in Liberia and from the RUF in Sierra Leone as a way to move assets into high-value commodities after some of its assets were frozen.
Taylor left office in August 2003 and was later tried by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In April 2012, he was convicted of crimes including war crimes and crimes against humanity, and in May 2012 was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
The United Nations Security Council lifted its ban on Liberian diamond exports in April 2007, after Liberia made progress toward joining the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. The United States Department of Labor has continued to list diamonds from Liberia among goods it has reason to believe are produced with child labor.
Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Civil War lasted from 1991 to 2002 and caused widespread civilian suffering, including killings, mutilation, sexual violence, torture, abduction, and the recruitment of child soldiers. Much of the violence was carried out by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which became notorious for attacks on civilians, including the amputation of limbs.
Diamonds played a central role in financing the conflict. The RUF gained control of diamond-mining areas and used revenue from diamond sales to fund its operations. In 2000, the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on the direct or indirect import of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone unless they were controlled by the government through a certificate-of-origin regime. The sanctions were lifted in 2003 after the government strengthened controls over diamond exports.
After the war, Sierra Leone sought to rebuild its diamond sector and increase the benefits of mining for local communities. However, campaign groups argued that diamond-producing areas, including Kono District, had seen limited development despite decades of mining and increased official diamond exports.
Republic of Congo
The Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) was removed from the Kimberley Process in 2004 after it was unable to account for large quantities of rough diamonds it was exporting despite limited domestic production. The country was readmitted in 2007 after authorities strengthened controls over the diamond trade.
Zimbabwe
Diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange diamond fields became a source of controversy within the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, particularly over whether abuses in the area fell within the scheme's definition of conflict diamonds. In 2010, Kimberley Process members reached an agreement allowing limited exports from Marange under monitoring, although human rights groups continued to raise concerns about abuses, smuggling, and military involvement in the fields.
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a significant producer of rough diamonds, and diamonds have played an important role in the country's conflicts.
Following the 2001 Central African Republic coup attempt and subsequent unrest, Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba assisted in suppressing the rebellion. He was later accused of using the CAR to launder Congolese conflict diamonds, helping to finance the continuation of the Second Congo War.
The CAR was a founding member of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) in 2003, but was suspended for two months that year after General François Bozizé took power in the 2003 Central African Republic coup d'état. The suspension was lifted after Bozizé gave assurances that the country would work to reduce the trade in conflict diamonds. The CAR subsequently established BEDCOR, a government body responsible for certifying diamonds as compliant with the KPCS, in conjunction with the USAID Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development Project. The initiative was not fully successful, and insurgent groups in the country continued to fund operations using conflict diamonds.
Following the rise of the Séléka alliance during the Central African Republic Civil War, the Kimberley Process suspended the CAR from the KPCS. A further administrative decision on 11 July 2014 was intended to reduce diamond smuggling from the country.
In 2015, the Kimberley Process allowed a partial resumption of diamond exports from approved areas, and legal diamond production gradually resumed. However, concerns about conflict diamonds have continued. The Wagner Group, whose forces entered the country in 2018, has been linked to conflict minerals, and illicit diamond smuggling into Cameroon has remained a concern. At the same time, restrictions under the KPCS reduced demand for illicit CAR diamonds, leading some rebel groups to turn instead to gold mining as a source of income.
Conflict diamond campaign
Global Witness was one of the first organizations to document the link between diamonds and conflicts in Africa in its 1998 report A Rough Trade. With the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1173 in 1998, the United Nations identified the conflict diamond issue as a source of war funding.