September 22, 2009
Congo-Kinshasa: End Resource War, Urge Congolese Activists
One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated ten million Congolese resulted in the end the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo.… Read more »
September 18, 2009
Congo-Kinshasa: Peace Campaigners Turn up Heat on Apple, Intel Over Conflict Minerals
The Enough Project, a leading Washington, DC-based advocacy group focusing on genocide and crimes against humanity, is stepping up efforts to end conflict in the Democratic… Read more »
May 26, 2009
Africa: Diamond Magnate Calls for 'African Way' of Doing Business
A South African businessman whose name is synonymous with the international diamond trade has told an African Union (AU) audience that the global economic crisis was caused by… Read more »
May 13, 2009
South Africa: Diamond Sold For Record U.S. $9.4 Million
A seven-carat blue diamond discovered at the Cullinan diamond mine near Pretoria has been sold in Geneva for a record price of nearly U.S. $9.5 million. Read more »
January 08, 2008
Liberia: Diamond Industry Expert Called as First Prosecution Witness
The following entry is reprinted from CharlesTaylorTrial.org, a site covering the war crimes trial of former president Charles Taylor. Read more »
December 04, 2007
South Africa: Miners Launch Strike Over Safety
Tens of thousands of South African miners held a one-day strike today in support of demands for safer working conditions. Read more »
November 15, 2007
Africa: Lonrho Plans Comeback
Among international companies operating in Africa, Lonrho has long enjoyed a high profile. Built up by colorful businessman Roland 'Tiny' Rowland, it was an early business… Read more »
October 18, 2007
Liberia: Despite Obstacles, All Ingredients Are in Place for Mittal to Succeed
A key part of the Liberian government's recovery drive focuses on well-managed exploitation of the country's vast natural resources. Iron ore production began in Liberia in… Read more »
October 04, 2007
South Africa: Thousands Rescued From Gold Mine
Thousands of miners are being rescued from Elandsrand gold mine near Johannesburg, where they have been trapped since Wednesday morning. Read more »
September 04, 2007
South Africa: 'Diamonds, Gold, and War' Examines Imperial Power Struggles
Diamonds, Gold, and War: the British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa Read more »
April 03, 2007
Guinea: Blood Aluminum?
Most Americans would be hard pressed to find the Republic of Guinea on a map. Not to be confused with Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, or Papua New Guinea, this small West African… Read more »
February 18, 2007
Guinea: The Case for U.S. Action
While the United States government plans to send an additional 20,000 troops to shore up a flawed military strategy in Iraq, it has failed to support the people of Guinea, where… Read more »
January 31, 2007
Africa: Blood Diamonds
Greg Campbell's Blood Diamonds is a detailed and long needed look at blood/conflict diamonds. The book inspired the film Blood Diamond, and research from the book was used in the… Read more »
December 13, 2006
Botswana: Community Wins Right to Ancestral Land
A community of Basarwa or San people of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana today won the right to live and hunt on their ancestral land. Read more »
December 08, 2006
Africa: 'Blood Diamond' Entertains, Educates
In the early days of Master Sergeant Samuel Doe's 1980 coup in Liberia, I was entering a hotel in Monrovia with my five-year-old son when soldiers lounging in the lobby started… Read more »
November 17, 2006
Guinea: Country Finds Hope in Alumina Refinery
In the dry season, a pervasive red dust wafts from the crushers at the bauxite operations that have dominated economic activity for over three decades in Guinea – home to a… Read more »
November 09, 2006
Angola: A New Diamond War
The upcoming Hollywood feature movie "Blood Diamond," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, promises to cast a spotlight on the role of so-called conflict diamonds in fueling… Read more »
November 01, 2005
Guinea: Local Residents Place High Hopes on Guinea's New Aluminum Refinery
For many citizens of Kamsar and Sangaredi, two cities about two hundred miles north of the capital Conakry in the West African nation of Guinea, bauxite mining has always been the… Read more »
September 29, 2005
South Africa: De Beers Workers Rush for HIV Testing, Treatment
Global diamond giant De Beers, which is 45 percent owned by Anglo American Plc, was honored Wednesday night for its workplace programs on HIV/Aids. Jonathan Oppenheimer, De Beers's… Read more »
September 26, 2005
Guinea: Global Alumina Agrees with UNDP to Advance Millennium Goals in Guinea
In the first agreement of its kind in the Republic of Guinea, a public/private partnership pact has been signed between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global… Read more »
June 27, 2005
Zambia: Zambia Is a Peaceful Destination for Tourism and Investment - Mwanawasa
Levy Mwanawasa, who took part in last week's U.S.-Africa Business Summit, became president of Zambia in January 2002 after a hotly contested election the previous month in which he… Read more »
May 17, 2005
Africa: Mandela's Powerful Message - 'Africa's Time Has Come'
As people begin to line up in movie theaters to visit galaxies far, far away in the final chapter of Star Wars, Nelson Mandela comes to America to remind us of a continent right… Read more »
January 28, 2005
Angola: Book Outlines Trees, Misses the Forest
Angola: Anatomy of an Oil State. Tony Hodges. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. 236 pp. $22.95. Read more »
August 17, 2004
Congo-Kinshasa: Scramble for Resources in DRC Leads to Massive Deaths, But Scant Attention
With an estimated 3.5 million Congolese dead over the last six years due to war, starvation and disease, the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the… Read more »
August 05, 2004
West Africa: Debate Over al Qaeda's Connection to West Africa's Diamond Trade Takes New Turns
The arrest of a Tanzanian fugitive in Pakistan last week, release of the 9-11 Commission report in Washington and a forthcoming finding by a war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone… Read more »