illegal diamond mining in africa
diamond's journey: Grim reality tarnishes glitter
From the mines in Africa, to polishers in India, to retailers in the West, follow a diamond's global path to market.
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The search for diamonds is not exactly easy. Many miners and diamond diggers in sub-Saharan Africa travel great distances to find work and submit to gruelingly long hours for low wages – or sometimes no wages – in substandard conditions.
The informal mining industry is where workers tend to be most exploited. In the Wild West atmosphere of many informal diamond mines, the quest for the “big find” – and the financial gain it promises – is the all-encompassing goal, and all other issues of morality or civic responsibility go out the window.
Child labor has long been a problem in informal diamond mines, especially during times of war. Children have often been exploited to do excavation work because they are small enough to be lowered into small, narrow pits by ropes to dig out sacks of dirt, which is in turn washed by other children in search of diamonds.
During Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war, children were often used as soldiers and workers in the rich Koidu diamond mines that funded the country’s rebels. USAID launched the Kono Peace Diamond Alliance in 2002 to try to improve the working conditions in the mines – particularly for children. But it is an uphill battle across Africa to get children who are either family breadwinners, or fending for themselves or conscripted into slave-like labor to stop working and go to school.
Under the best circumstances, mining is fraught with dangers. There is always the possibility of mudslides, collapsing walls, drowning and other accidents for miners searching for diamonds in alluvial deposits. In Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of Congo, illegal miners caught in mining concessions can be shot and killed. In August 2006 the BBC reported that six miners were shot and killed in a mine near the town for illegal mining.
While the
From the mines in Africa, to polishers in India, to retailers in the West, follow a diamond's global path to market.
Below:
1.
The search for diamonds is not exactly easy. Many miners and diamond diggers in sub-Saharan Africa travel great distances to find work and submit to gruelingly long hours for low wages – or sometimes no wages – in substandard conditions.
The informal mining industry is where workers tend to be most exploited. In the Wild West atmosphere of many informal diamond mines, the quest for the “big find” – and the financial gain it promises – is the all-encompassing goal, and all other issues of morality or civic responsibility go out the window.
Child labor has long been a problem in informal diamond mines, especially during times of war. Children have often been exploited to do excavation work because they are small enough to be lowered into small, narrow pits by ropes to dig out sacks of dirt, which is in turn washed by other children in search of diamonds.
During Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war, children were often used as soldiers and workers in the rich Koidu diamond mines that funded the country’s rebels. USAID launched the Kono Peace Diamond Alliance in 2002 to try to improve the working conditions in the mines – particularly for children. But it is an uphill battle across Africa to get children who are either family breadwinners, or fending for themselves or conscripted into slave-like labor to stop working and go to school.
Under the best circumstances, mining is fraught with dangers. There is always the possibility of mudslides, collapsing walls, drowning and other accidents for miners searching for diamonds in alluvial deposits. In Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of Congo, illegal miners caught in mining concessions can be shot and killed. In August 2006 the BBC reported that six miners were shot and killed in a mine near the town for illegal mining.
While the