(Business in Cameroon) - On the eve of a Kimberly Process assessment mission in Cameroon, a report made public on 2 December 2016 revealed “the inability” of the country “to implement the Kimberly Process”, the international diamond certification process meant to put an end to the conflict diamonds trade.
Indeed, in a report entitled “From conflict to illicit: Mapping the diamond trade from Central African Republic to Cameroon”, Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), a funding mechanism supported by Canadian and African NGOs, as well as the Canadian International Development Agency; reveals that “Cameroon allows conflict diamond from the Central African Republic to cross its borders and enter the legal supply chain, due to weak law enforcement, smuggling and corruption”.
According to Joanne Lebert, General Director of PAC, “even though the international outcry raised by war funding through ‘blood diamond’ in the Central African Republic led to the adoption of measures to stop the trade, we have not given the same attention to CAR’s neighbours. Our assessment shows the reality on the ground and the way conflict diamonds originating from CAR still have entry points on international markets through Cameroon”.
PAC highlights that the report was developed based on testimonies of miners, traders and exporters, who “described in detail the smuggling of diamonds from the Central African Republic which cross the 900 km border this country shares with Cameroon; corruption among State officials in charge of verifying the origin of the diamonds; and important shipments of conflict diamonds under embargo”, which are generally “self-declared” as coming from Cameroon.
From these conclusions, which are rather inauspicious on the results of the assessment Cameroon must go through, the author of the report, Offah Obale, proposes that “when visiting Cameroon, the Kimberley Process should act without delay and show companies, retailers – and above all consumers – that it is capable of putting an end to the flow of conflict diamonds”.
Brice R. Mbodiam