What are blood diamonds used for?
Similarly, what are blood diamonds worth?
The trade in 1999, at the height of the conflict, was estimated by the World bank to have been potentially worth $138 million a year. Instead of helping Sierra Leone, the world's poorest country, the diamonds were siphoned off to arm and supply the rebels that left 120,000 people dead and millions homeless.
Correspondingly, why are blood diamonds so important?
Many parents choose to send their teenagers to the mines instead. It is an industry that was supposed to be cleaned up, after the turn-of-the-millennium notoriety surrounding so-called blood or conflict diamonds—precious stones mined in African war zones, often by forced labor, and used to fund armed rebel movements.
Conflict diamonds, or blood diamonds, are rough diamonds mined in conflict zones that are used by armed groups to finance conflict and commit grave human rights abuses. Conflict diamonds have originated from Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.