UN Security Council plans to lift ban on Ivory Coast’s rough diamond exports

The United Nations (UN) Security Council plans to lift its ban on rough diamond exports from the region, reports say. A resolution to this effect could be adopted soon and is being prepared on the lines of recognising the country as making progress in complying and implementing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) and better governance in the sector, reports add.

This development comes in the midst of reports of illegal diamond trafficking in Ivory Coast.

It is also reported that there is consensus amongst the UN Security Council members to lift the ban and it is hoped that the doing away of the embargo would stop the diamond trafficking issue, reports say.

The UN Security Council banned diamond exports and laid other regulations following Ivory Coast’s civil war in 2002-2003 and later chose to continued these regulations and embargo until end-April 2014 after the second civil war in 2011.