At the end of the three-day workshop, the participants conducted a review of the Kimberley Process and identified prospects for improving its implementation in the Central African sub-region, as well as formulated recommendations.

Regarding the state of the Kimberley Process, discussions covered, among other topics, the issues related to the diamonds of the Central African Republic and their impact on the lives of nearby communities, implementation of the regional approach in Central Africa, transparency, traceability, and the fight against smuggling in the diamond sector in the DRC, and the embargo on diamonds from the Central African Republic and its impact on nearby communities.

Overall, participants lamented the procedural slowness related to the review mission in the Central African Republic, which was to decide on a possible total lifting of the embargo on Central African diamonds.

Concerning the embargo on diamonds in the Central African Republic, the debates revealed that it has exacerbated smuggling and penalized artisanal miners and nearby communities.

Regarding transparency, traceability, and diamond smuggling, participants criticized the unreliability of diamond production statistics...

Those attending the workshop also deplored the pollution of the Tshikapa and Kasaï rivers, the inaction of the Catoca company with respect to the victims from the DRC, and the inadequate support for victims by the Congolese government.

Several recommendations were made, including for the states of the sub-region to organize tripartite platforms at the national and local levels to allow stakeholders to meet regularly and discuss the challenges of diamond governance, to invite the Angolan and Congolese governments to agree on the implementation of compensation mechanisms for the victims of pollution in the Tshikapa and Kasaï rivers.

To the Kimberley Process civil society coalition, to support the victims of pollution in the Tshikapa and Kasaï rivers in seeking reparations, to send a letter to the Catoca company for the compensation of the victims of the pollution...

Gisèle Tshijuka