At Least a Dozen Killed in Zimbabwe Army Attack on Diamond Diggers

A number of diamond diggers were killed during a military offensive in Zimbabwe. Conflicting reports say 12 to 16 people were killed by helicopter gunfire, according to an opposition newspaper.

Alluvial mining in Africa (above) provides a steady stream of diamonds in courtiers with poor infrastructure. At the same time, they pose a threat to the producing country's income as well as jeopardizes the Kimberley Process.

The night battle, which included ground forces, police units, dogs and snipers, targeted a tribal area about 20 miles north east of Mutare near the Mozambique border, ZMNEWS reported on Saturday.

“The dogs were let loose on the people and when police realized people were killing the dogs with mugwara [iron bars used for diamond digging] then the police began firing live ammunition,” A 38-year-old survivor of the attack told the newspaper.

He said people started escape, some climbing on trees, when the helicopter opened fire at the people below. “There were bodies scattered all over the place, some were injured and some were dead with their intestines hanging out.”

According to another witness, some 10,000 people were at the site when the raid started. After the attack, police went through the pockets of the dead and injured, taking diamonds and money.

The government of Zimbabwe is battling the world’s worse inflation. In one of its efforts to maintain some income, it is fighting the loss of its natural riches. This includes attempting to stop alluvial diamond mining that result in large scale smuggling of the diamonds out of the country.