Ivory Coast Officer Using Diamond Profits to Buy Weapons
April 24, 14 (IDEX Online News) – UN experts say that a senior Ivory Coast army officer is breaking a diamond embargo and may be using the profits to buy arms, according to a report in Reuters.
The report comes after the country, the only one in the world in which the UN has banned diamond exports, received a positive report from the Kimberley Process (KP) in November 2013.
In March, the country said it would urge the UN to lift the diamond export ban. The trade embargo was imposed by the UN Security Council in 2005 following a civil war that took place in Ivory Coast from 2003-2005.
A UN report said that: "The measures and restrictions imposed by the (Security) Council ... still do not prevent the illicit trafficking of Ivorian rough diamonds." UN officials named Sekou Niangadou, a Malian national as the main diamond buyer in Seguela, one of Ivory Coast’s two main diamond areas.
Niangadou told the UN experts that he managed to circumvent the KP requirements by sending rough diamonds to offices in Guinea and Liberia to obtain their certificates of origin, Reuters said.
In order to operate in diamond areas, Niangadou's network made cash payments to two army officers loyal to Colonel Issiaka Ouattara, better known as Wattao,the deputy commander of Ivory Coast's elite Republican Guard, Reuters quoted the experts as saying.
“Wattao was a senior commander in the New Forces, which launched a rebellion in 2002 and backed President Alassane Ouattara during the 2011 war sparked by incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to accept defeat in a run-off election,” said Reuters.
Gbagbo is currently awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
The UN experts said they were concerned that the funds may be used for “the purchase of arms and related materiel in violation of the sanctions regime."
Before the embargo, Ivory Coast produced about 300,000 carats of diamonds a year, worth $25 million, experts say.