Central Africa Republic seeks lifting of embargo on its diamonds

The Central African Republic (CAR) sought Tuesday to convince the regulatory body for global diamond trading to lift all restrictions against it, ending an export embargo in place for more than a decade.

The Kimberley Process (KP) regulatory body opened its plenary assembly in Dubai on Tuesday under the presidency of the United Arab Emirates.

The CAR wants a total lifting of the embargo imposed since a political and military crisis sparked civil war in 2013, after decades of violence, instability and coups.

Mines and Geology Minister Rufin Benam Beltoungou highlighted at the opening session his government's efforts towards the return of peace and meeting the criteria for the lifting of the embargo, according to a statement by his ministry posted on Facebook.

Security problem

He has previously said - after KP experts visited in September - that "the conditions (for lifting the embargo) are now met since, on our side, the security problem no longer arises".

In addition, "the minimum traceability requirement has been resolved," he argued at the time.

For the first time since 2015, the expert team was able to see the situation on the ground.

Although the civil conflict lost intensity in 2018, the country still suffers bouts of violence and remains deeply poor.

The team went to several mining sites to verify compliance of extraction and marketing practices with international standards, designed to prevent the export of "blood diamonds" mined in conflict zones.

Gem quality diamond deposits make up - together with gold - one of the CAR's most precious resources.

Wagner group

Mining and research permits have been issued to Chinese, American, Rwandan and also Russian groups linked to the Wagner mercenary group backing the ruling regime.

The effect of sanctions on the CAR has been deep-seated.

In 2011, two years before a military coup which degenerated into a long-drawn-out civil war, the country officially earned 29.7 billion CFA francs (around $50 million) from 323,575.30 carats of diamond exports.

Last year, the total figure stood at just 324.3 million CFA francs, according to official figures.

The sanctions "should have been lifted as soon as constitutional order was restored in March 2016", Luc Florentin Simplice Brosseni Yali, director general of the KP's permanent secretariat in Bangui, said to AFP.

Mining sites

During the last UN General Assembly in New York, President Faustin Archange Touadera called for a total lifting of the embargo, emphasising his country was now "relatively stable".

But, despite efforts to expand state authority across the whole country, "the security situation remained volatile... owing to recurrent armed clashes over access to mining sites and influence over main road axes", the latest report from the UN force, MINUSCA, said.

An International Monetary Fund team, for its part, noted progress on the security front after a visit to Bangui in late September.

But it also highlighted "the still unfavourable" business environment, regulatory uncertainty and "persistent insecurity in certain mining areas".

The KP's meeting in Dubai, which runs until Friday, is the second full gathering of the year exclusively held for KP participants and observers.

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