Minerals and arms smuggling worth millions of dollars persists in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) despite international sanctions, fuelling rebel strength despite national army operations, and army and rebel soldiers continue to kill civilians, according to a new United Nations report that calls on the Security Council to take action to plug the [...]
Africa
Security Council Renews Diamond Trade Ban in Côte d’Ivoire
Noting with concern continuing human rights violations against civilians in Côte d’Ivoire, including numerous acts of sexual violence, the Security Council this morning renewed for another year its arms embargo and diamond trade ban in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as targeted sanctions restricting the travel of individuals that threatened the peace process in the West [...]
Africa
Zimbabwe Cited as ‘Distraction’ for Kimberley Process Participants in Continued Uninhibited Rough Diamond Trade From Ivory Coast
A new United Nations report to the Security Council by the Group of Experts monitoring sanctions on the Ivory Coast has found that the
extraction of diamonds continues unabated in northern Côte d’Ivoire. The report describes this continued mining as ‘the foremost challenge facing the embargo on rough diamond exports from Côte d’Ivoire’, noting that the [...]
Africa
Security Council Extends UN Presence in Liberia and Sierra Leone
The Security Council has extended the mandates for one year of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia and the world body’s peacebuilding office in neighbouring Sierra Leone, both diamond-rich countries.
In its unanimously-adopted resolution on the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the Council authorized the force to assist the West African nation with the 2011 [...]
