Sierra Leone

---

Sierra Leone is in poverty because of the bad government and multi-national corporations. It has funds generated by the illegal sale of diamonds mined in the conflict areas. These funds are used to buy small arms and to finance military campaigns. Millions of people have been killed in the diamonds fueled conflict over the past decade, and 6,500,000 people became refugees.



The Sierra Leone Civil War began when Revolutionary United Front (RUF) with support from the Liberia president, to over throw the government. During the first year of the war the RUF took control of large swatches of territory in the eastern and southern Sierra Leone, which were rich in alluvial diamonds. Which 300,000 children have been forced to become child soldiers and commit horrible atrocities on behalf of the rebel groups seeking to maintain control of diamond mines.



The government made some efforts to reduce smuggling and corruptions in the diamond mining sector, but it lacked to enforce the law. The diamonds mined were smuggling across the border and sold as diamonds from Liberia. These then went to large corporations that knew they were not originally from Liberia. These million dollar corporations fueled the civil war in Sierra Leone by supplying the rebels with the money by buying the diamonds. There for Sierra Leone is in poverty because of the large world corporations that are fueling the rebels and the bad government can’t enforce laws to stop the sale of the diamonds from being smuggled.

---