The Central African Republic: A Story of Blood Diamonds and Poor Policy
On July 10, 2025, the anti-government armed groups Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC) and Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R) officially disarmed and disbanded their military units, marking significant developments in the Central African Republic’s pursuit of peace. This follows a deal made with the CAR’s government on April 19th, 2025, in which the UPC and 3R recommitted to a prior peace deal made in 2019.
These peace developments follow over a decade of violent conflict. Since 2013, when the rebel coalition Séléka overthrew the government, the CAR has been mired by political and sectarian violence. Civilians faced rape, murder, pillaging, and other abuses at the hands of the Séléka, who sought to end the exclusion of the country’s Muslim population. In retaliation, pro-government groups known as the Anti-Balaka, along with the Central African Armed Forces, attacked Muslim civilians, plunging the nation into a sectarian fragmentation.
While this year’s peace deal brings a tentative end to the violence by the UPC and 3R, other rebel groups continue to fight against the government. As of 2023, more than 1.4 million civilians were displaced, and 1.1 million more were at risk of displacement. Yet violence committed by insurgents and the government is only a small portion of the mass suffering that civilians in the CAR have endured. For years, the sale of diamonds to international buyers by armed groups has provided an enduring economic incentive for conflict over peace.
The global trade in “blood diamonds” was valued at a staggering $81.4 billion in 2014, shortly after Séléka’s coup d'état. Also known as conflict diamonds, these gems have financed insurgencies in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Angola, and the CAR for decades. Although the CAR ratified the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), an initiative to eradicate conflict diamonds, in 2003, the country’s participation was suspended in 2013 following the coup. Following the Process’s suspension, 140,000 carats of diamonds were smuggled into the neighboring DRC and sold to international markets in the next year. The embargo has since been lifted— but not without consequences. In the years the country was forbidden from exporting diamonds, little stood in the way of the creation of an illegal black market.
The rise of an underground diamond economy came at a devastating human cost. In the wake of the coup d'état, members of armed groups often used violence to gain access to areas rich with diamonds. Diamond mines were taken by force, with one mine owner reporting that Séléka tortured his sister to extract information on mine locations. Soon, Séléka and the Anti-Balaka began to exploit mine owners by means of overtaxation. In a country where, as of 2023, almost 70 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty, the illegal exploitation of one of its most lucrative natural resources is all the more damaging to the civilian population.
Diamonds have been mined in the CAR since 1929. A 2019 study estimated that the diamond production in the country amounted to 187,000 carats per year, with up to 300,000 people depending on the diamond industry for their livelihoods. While done in an effort to curb the sale of conflict diamonds, the Kimberly Process’s embargo only emboldened such groups to mine and sell diamonds illegally and use force and exploitation to do so. Civilians, who already faced violence and displacement because of the war with the government, were ripped off by warring factions and barred from exporting diamonds outside the country. While domestic trade was still permitted, excluding the international market shrank the legal trade and encouraged illegal smuggling.
In November 2024, the embargo was lifted, citing improved circumstances. Whether or not those conditions truly exist, by lifting the embargo, the Kimberly Process suggests that there are no more conflict diamonds within the CAR. Certain rebel groups and the government continue to fight, yet the future appears relatively bright. This year’s peace deals, combined with the end of the embargo, give civilians a greater chance of avoiding violence and living off the diamond industry than they have been able to since Séléka cast the nation into chaos in 2013. By driving the diamond trade underground, enabling the funding of dozens of rebel factions, and not holding international diamond buyers accountable for their supply chains, the Kimberly Process is a lesson in how not to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.
The end to the conflict diamond industry remains unseen. Greater transparency with suppliers, political support for civilian diamond miners, and legal consequences for smugglers are needed to dig out the trade at its root. The Kimberly Process’s poor policy merely addressed symptoms of the trade rather than confronting the circumstances that enabled its development in the first place. Without guidelines that promote accountability for participants and reparations for victims, smuggling and exploitation is bound to continue. Yet for the moment, the CAR is the most stable it has been in years. If the peace deals with UPC and 3R are upheld, civilians may experience pre-war conditions. With time, the CAR may finally be able to harness its jeweled resources for domestic development rather than mayhem and brutality.