Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)-A pastor, Emmanuel Momoh, has found one of the world’s largest uncut diamonds, a 702 carat rock in Sierra Leone’s eastern Kono region.
The Pastor, who is a panner, extracted the diamond which is believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars and gave it to the local chief, who in turn has since given it to the President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma.
The Pastor is however entitled to the bigger part of the share after the selling of the diamond.
According to Deutsh Welle “the presidency thanked the chief who acted as an intermediary for not smuggling the diamond”
“The government reportedly plans to auction the diamond and take a 4% cut from the sell”
“The gem has since been put in Freetown’s central bank vault. It will get an officla valuation under the Kimberly Process, which certifies diamonds as conflict free”, said DW.
Diamonds were the chief cause of a decade long civil war that raged in Sierral Leon only ending in 2002.
During the war rebels allegedly forced civilians in the eats to mine the stones and bought weapons with the proceeds leading to the term ‘blood diamonds’.
The sale of these blood diamonds fueled civil wars across Africa in the 1990’s and often propped up military dictatorships on a continent that by some estimates supplies 65% of the world’s diamonds.
The death toll from Sierra Leon’s civil waris estimated at 120 000 in a nation that has 6 million people, making it one of the most deadly conflicts in recent years says DW.
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