Angola Sets up New Body to Monitor Diamond Trade

The Angolan government has set up a new security body to monitor the loosely controlled diamond-mining sector.

The new body, the Corpo de Seguranca de Diamantes (CSD), will monitor the storing, classification and transportation of diamonds.

Control of diamond security in the past has been shared among people or groups in the ruling elite, occasionally in partnerships with foreign firms, but the CSD will be placed under the control of the domestic intelligence services, according to media reports.

The government’s security shake-up aims to centralize and strengthen control over a sector plagued by warlords and unregulated competition between tens of thousands of small-scale diggers and official mining operations.

As part of ongoing efforts to curb illegal diamond trafficking, the Angolan army arrested 700 people during an operation in the central province of Bie in December and 10,000 illegal Congolese diamond miners were expelled.

Angola recently apologized for the treatment of the Congolese miners during the crackdown, acknowledging that “excesses” were committed by its forces.

Analysts see the clampdown on illegal traffickers as the result of cooperation between the presidency, the secret service, several ministries and Angola's public diamond enterprise, Endiama.

The illegal miners operate mainly in the diamond-rich northern provinces of Lunda Norte, Malenje, Uije and the central province of Bie.

Angola is the world’s fourth-largest diamond producer after Botswana, Russia and South Africa.