The Life and Horrors of the Children of Africa

Blood diamonds or conflict diamonds are often defined as rough diamonds that has been mined in a country dealing with civil wars or any sort of conflict and that were used to finance these wars. The innocent and not so innocent blood shed in the wars and coups financed by conflict diamonds IS the reason for the Africa diamonds being labeled "blood diamonds". However, though this may be ghastly enough, the truth is that the very roots of the diamonds are dark enough to warrant the label of Blood diamonds even without the bloody wars.

Conflict Africa Diamonds

Conflict Africa diamonds are not used just by rebel groups to fund their causes but are also usually mined by them illegally. To be able to mine the diamonds they need, rebel groups force the civilian population to work as slaves and prisoners in mining camps were the workers are treated brutally and do not get paid for their labor. The even sadder fact is that many of the miners in the illegal camps are mere children. Children were taken from their families and forced to under brutal conditions dig alluvial pits to uncover diamonds. WorldVision an organization dedicated to making children's lives better couldn't say it any better whenever they ask they question, "Dying for a diamond? Unfortunately, thousands of children are too!"

Conflict Africa Diamonds and War

Children were not used only by these rebels as slaves to mine their "diamond fields" but were also forced, and in some parts of Africa, are still being forced to be soldiers as part of their war. As an example the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone once used children as their soldiers to help them in their insurgency. Children were "recruited" by RUF soldiers by forcing them to submission. Young girls starting at the age of 10 were raped into submission while boys were forced to execute their village elders and even parents to cut them off from their "old family" and be part of their new rebel families. After the children were "recruited" the RUF secured their loyalties by giving them drugs and when this failed by punishing them through branding and amputation. Because of this countless children ended up with hacked limbs, mutilated bodies, and debilitated psyches. The torture was definitely not only physically but very much emotional and psychological.

These horrors of human rights violations happened not only in Sierra Leone but in many countries were conflict happened and where they funded their wars and coups using illegally mined Africa diamonds. An article written by Greg Campbell for Amnesty International about Blood Africa Diamonds tells of a story of a fifteen year old African boy named Jusu Lahia whose limbs were amputated after being wounded by a rocket propelled grenade during a battle. The battle fought was part of a war that was fought in Sierra Leone by opposing factions not for ideology but for control of an open-pit diamond mine where the workers were slaves worked to exhaustion ended up mostly in shallow graves.