Editing Blood diamond (section)

=== Sierra Leone ===
The [[Sierra Leone Civil War]] started in 1991 and continued until 2002, costing an estimated 50,000 lives and causing local people to suffer killings, mutilation, rape, torture and abduction, mainly due to the brutal warfare waged by rebel group, the [[Revolutionary United Front]] (RUF). The RUF claimed that they supported causes of justice and democracy in the beginning, but later on they started to control the villages and to prevent local people from voting for the new government by chopping off their limbs. Victims included children and infants. It created numerous examples of physical and psychological harm across Sierra Leone.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/22/world/sierra-leone-measures-terror-in-severed-limbs.html |title=Sierra Leone Measures Terror in Severed Limbs |last=Onishi |first=Norimitsu |date=22 August 1999 |work=The New York Times |access-date=19 December 2019 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Moreover, they also occupied the diamond mines in order to get access to funding and continued support of their actions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smillie|first=I|date=2013|title=Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law|journal=Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law|volume=46|issue=4|pages=1004}}</ref> For example, during that time, RUF was mining up to $125 million of diamonds yearly. Since diamonds are used as a funding source, they also created opportunities for tax evasion and financial support of crime.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Global Witness|date=2006|title=The Truth About Diamonds : Conflict and Development.|url=https://www.globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/import/the_truth_about_diamonds.pdf|journal=Global Witness}}</ref> Therefore, United Nations Security Council imposed diamond sanctions in 2000, which were then lifted in 2003. According to [[National Geographic News|''National Geographic News'']], all of these civil wars and conflicts created by rebel groups resulted in over four million deaths in the African population and injuries to over two million civilians.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://money.howstuffworks.com/african-diamond-trade2.htm|title=How the African Diamond Trade Works|last=Hoyt|first=A|website=Howstuffworks.com|date=21 April 2008}}</ref> Another conflict diamond statistic from Statistic Brain revealed that Sierra Leone has been listed as second highest in the production of conflict diamonds, which is shown as 1% of the world's production, after Angola, which produced 2.1% in 2016. 15% of Sierra Leone's diamond production are conflict diamonds. It shows that the production of conflict diamonds still exists in Sierra Leone.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2016 |title=Conflict Diamond statistics |url=http://www.statisticbrain.com/conflict-diamond-statistics/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314173102/http://www.statisticbrain.com/conflict-diamond-statistics |archive-date=2012-03-14 |website=Statistic Brain}}</ref>

According to the US's 2005 [[Country Reports on Human Rights Practices|Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of Africa]], serious human rights issues still exist in Sierra Leone, even though the 11-year civil conflict had officially ended by 2002. Sierra Leone remains in an unstable political situation, although the country has elected a new government. The huge consequences of blood diamonds still remain a mainstream issue in Sierra Leone. One of the biggest issues is people still being abused by the security forces, including rape and the use of excessive force on detainees, including teenagers. Child abuse and child labor are other serious issues which took place in Sierra Leone after the civil conflicts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61591.htm|title=2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Africa : Sierra Leone|last=U.S. Department of State|date=2006}}</ref> As they need a high number of workers, the security forces started kidnapping and forcing young adults to be their slaves; children were forced to join their army as soldiers, and women were raped. They even burned entire villages. Thousands of men, women, and children are used as slaves to collect diamonds, and they are forced to use their bare hands to dig in mud along river banks instead of digging with tools.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/26/world/africa/blood-diamonds/index.html|title=How diamonds fuel Africa's conflicts|last=Paul|first=Armstrong|date=2012|website=CNN}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/89089538/Ethical-Issue-Analyis-Blood-Diamond-Analysis|title=Ethical Issue Analysis: Blood Diamond Analysis|last=Tammy|first=Hanna|date=2012}}</ref>

A report from [[Global Witness]], "The Truth About Diamonds: Conflict and Development", mentioned that Sierra Leone is listed as second from the bottom of the [[United Nations Human Development Index]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=Human Development Report - Sierra Leone |url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/SLE |access-date=8 October 2020 |website=[[United Nations Development Programme]]}}</ref> It also showed that Sierra Leone was still making slow progress, in 2016, in such different aspects as education, health, and human rights, since 1990, which is also the year that conflicts took place in Sierra Leone. It shows that it is a huge consequence of blood diamonds that it brought into the country, even though the war had ended in 2002 and the government tried to improve and adjust the cooperation of the diamond industry. Sierra Leone resulted in an increase of over US$140 million in 2005 and attempted a percentage return of export tax to diamond mining communities. However, it does not improve anything{{snd}}the money is not reaching the public and it has not provided benefit to anyone in the communities. For instance, the [[Kono District]] in Sierra Leone has been mined for 70 years, but there are still no basic facilities, like electricity and well-maintained roads. Houses are destroyed because of the civil wars.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=November 2006 |title=The Truth About Diamonds: Conflict and Development |url=https://www.globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/import/the_truth_about_diamonds.pdf |publisher=[[Global Witness]] |access-date=8 October 2020}}</ref> It also examines the ethical issues of how rebel groups treat those locals. They used brainwashing of inexperienced young children and forced them to be child soldiers as they lost their personal freedom and rights under command that included violence and intimidation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tammy |first=Hanna |date=2012 |title=Ethical Issue Analysis – Blood Diamond Analysis |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/89089538/Ethical-Issue-Analyis-Blood-Diamond-Analysis |access-date=8 October 2020 |website=[[Scribd]]}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=April 2025}}