African Producers Hit out, as India Takes KP Chair
December 31, 25
(IDEX Online) - African diamond producers have reacted angrily to India's last-minute selection as chair of the Kimberley Process (KP), claiming it will retain the status quo and do nothing to help them.
The African Diamond Council (ADC), representing 18 member countries, described the KP as "morally bankrupt" and "irrelevant" for failing to adapt to modern conflicts and human rights risks.
In a strongly-worded statement it urges India to expand the conflict diamond definition - where countless previous chairs have failed - and to abolish the consensus veto. But its tone suggested the plea was more in hope than expectation.
India takes over as KP chair tomorrow (1 January 2026), after more than a year of deadlock over which country would succeed UAE.
"India's 2026 chairmanship will be judged not by the KP's empty promises of 'efficient governance,' but by its willingness to enact these fundamental, life-saving reforms," said the ADC.
"Failing that, India will simply be presiding over the funeral of its own credibility."
ADC's opposition underscores deepening fractures in KP, where African producers - supplying over 60 per cent of global rough diamonds - feel sidelined by consensus rules favoring traders like India, which polishes the vast majority of the world's stones.