Important+Places

The important countries that blood diamonds occur in are Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Côte d'Ivoire; all are located in Africa.
 * Important places:**
 * Sierra Leone is one of the main countries of the conflict diamonds. In 1935, De Beers, a diamond company, took complete control of the mining in Sierra Leone for the next 99 years. Lebanese traders within Sierra Leone discovered the immense profit that could be made by smuggling diamonds. As a result, illegal mining and trading increased throughout the country. In 1984, De Beers removed itself from Sierra Leone.**





**Angola is another country with blood diamonds. Diamond mining here dates back to 1917. Angola had a civil war against the Portuguese Colonialism which started in 1961. In 1975 Angola gained independence, and in 1981 a state-owned diamond company, called Endiama, was formed.** By 1999, the illegal diamond trade was estimated by the World diamond council to have been reduced to 3.06% of the world's diamond production. The World **Diamond Council** reported that by 2004 this percentage had fallen to approximately 1%.

Back to Homepage Logan Sprung Work Cited

"Blood Diamonds." __Global Issues in Context Online Collection__. Detroit: Gale,  2009. __Global Issues In Context __. Gale. WCPS/Green Hope High School. 16 Nov. 2009 Johnson, Eric. Blood Diamonds: The Conflict in Sierra Leone. Stanford. December 6, 2002/ []. November 24, 2009