U.N. Security Council Lifts Ban on Ivory Coast Diamond Exports

(IDEX Online News) – The U.N. Security Council has removed a ban on diamond exports from the Ivory Coast after U.N. experts said the measure had failed to prevent illegal trafficking.

The U.N. Security Council imposed the diamond export ban in 2005.

U.N. experts have valued the annual illegal trading in Ivory Coast diamonds at $12 million to $23 million. Before the prohibition, Ivory Coast produced about $25 million worth of diamonds annually.

The U.N. reported to the Security Council earlier this month "that the measures and restrictions imposed by the Security Council ... do not prevent the trafficking of Ivorian rough diamonds.

"The group furthermore notes that, in spite of having identified violations of the diamond embargo in its public reports since 2006, the Ivorian authorities have made no progress in combating the smuggling of diamonds nor taken any concrete initiatives to date.”

The Ivory Coast government has expressed an interest in relaunching the diamond sector as a means of helping in the financing of post civil war reconstruction.

The Security Council also voted to relax a 2004 arms ban to enable government forces to buy light weapons without the approval of a U.N. committee. "We recognize the government of Cote d'Ivoire's need to build capable and professional security forces," U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis told the council.