Diamonds are some of the most beautiful and most expensive minerals on earth today. They can be used a variety of occasions whether it is to celebrate an anniversary or maybe bought as an engagement gift they are the perfect gift for that special someone. Diamonds have a dark side though, a really dark side. Diamonds help fund wars and human rights abuses around the world. 65% of the Worlds diamonds come form Africa and $8.5 billion are generated from African diamond exports. Warlords use the money from selling these high priced and high sot after goods to buy guns and other weapons to inflict pain and suffering on human beings. The Western World has mostly turned a blind eye to this issue because the high demand for diamonds around the developed world. As the Issue became more and more main stream, Nations like Canada and the US tried to take action with issue and have made some major steps of improvement to the diamond trade.The trade of diamonds still goes on and conflict diamonds are still finding there way onto the market. Conflict diamonds around the world cause environmental and human damage and will continue to happen as long as the market for them is high.
Conflict diamonds fund wars around the world especially in Africa. In the 1990s, Wars in countries like Angola, The DRC, and Sierra Leone took the lives of over 3.7 million people. Weapons in these conflicts were being purchased with money made from diamonds. Warlords control areas of the country that have a deposit of rough diamonds and mine these diamonds until the area is completely searched. Often slave labour is used to mine the countryside and river for the diamonds. The Diamonds are then given to a middleman or smuggler to get to places where they can be valued and sold to Companies that sell diamonds in the US like De Beers. The money is then given back to the Warlords who purchase guns and ammunition for the groups. The Wars in Angola, The DRC, and Sierra Leone have either decreased or...