![]() ![]() The illegal smuggling of diamonds out of the DRC in 2000 exceeded the total national state budget. The country received the ironic description ‘geological scandal’ because from as early as the time of the Belgian King Leopold II, the country has been plundered by national and international elites, rebel groups and companies. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the world’s richest countries in terms of natural wealth. Numerous other countries (to name a few: Cambodia, Angola, Sierra Leone and Sudan) have been a stage for plunder, fights, corruption and mismanagement related to natural wealth in those countries. By this diamond trade the rebels would generate estimated revenues of US $9 million to US $23 million to finance their movement (United Nations Security Council 2006).Ĭôte d’Ivoire is only one of the countries that unfortunately illustrate the presumed nexus between natural resources and conflict. Last year, the UN expert panel on Côte d’Ivoire reported that diamonds were still being smuggled out of the country via Mali and Ghana in violation of the United Nations embargo. Over US $118 million revenues from the cocoa trade flowed into the conflict by funding both the government and the rebel group ‘Forces Nouvelles (FN)’ in the North of the country (Global Witness 2007). ![]() The cocoa trade from Côte d’Ivoire, the country’s main commodity has played a major role in the four-and-a-half-years of armed conflict. ![]()
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