The Kimberley Process monitoring team has designated three new compliant zones
The Kimberley Process monitoring team has cleared three additional areas in the Central African Republic to export diamonds through the certification scheme.
The sub-prefectures of Boda, Carnot, and Nola have been ruled compliant zones, Kimberley Process chair Ahmed Bin Sulayem announced recently.
Previously, just Berbérati had been cleared.
“To date, two shipments have been exported from Berbérati successfully,” Bin Sulayem said in a statement. “Good progress has been made, and hopefully we can move forward to a larger normalization of the situation in the Western zone of the CAR.”
The KP banned exports of rough diamonds from the Central African Republic in May 2013 after rebels seized control of the country and evidence surfaced that these rebels were funding their insurgency through diamond sales.
In July 2015, the KP agreed in principle that the CAR could resume exports from heavily monitored compliant zones. Diamond mining, particularly alluvial (small-scale) operations, is one of the country’s main source of revenue.
(Photo courtesy of the Kimberley Process)
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