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The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) operates as a multilateral framework under which participating governments jointly certify that rough diamond exports are conflict-free. When the KPCS imposes an embargo on a member, that member's rough diamonds cannot legally enter KP trade channels — effectively excluding the country from the ~$14bn global rough diamond market.
The 2013 embargo was triggered after the Séléka rebel coalition overthrew President Bozizé in March 2013 and was found to be financing its military campaign through diamond extraction in CAR's Sangha-Mbaéré, Haute-Kotto, Vakaga, and Mambéré-Kadéï mining zones. The embargo functioned as a total export suspension rather than a selective goods exclusion.
The lifting was not automatic: it followed a peer-review mission to CAR conducted under South African leadership (South Africa held the KP chair in 2023) which assessed that security conditions in key mining zones had sufficiently stabilised to permit controlled resumption of formal diamond exports. The UAE, which chaired the KP in 2024, made the CAR readmission one of its flagship "Year of Delivery" commitments.
Enhanced vigilance conditions are attached to the readmission:
These conditions do not restrict the volume or destinations of exports — they condition the certification process through which exports gain KP compliance status.
CAR's artisanal diamond sector employs approximately 150,000 people directly in mining and processing, with an estimated 400,000 dependents — making it one of the most labour-intensive economic activities in one of the world's poorest countries (GNI per capita ~USD 500). The formal export sector essentially ceased in 2013; an estimated illicit smuggling trade persisted through Cameroon, DRC, and Central African channels.
Pre-embargo, CAR was producing roughly 300,000–400,000 carats per year of predominantly artisanal rough diamonds, with primary export markets in Belgium (Antwerp), UAE (Dubai), and India (Surat).
The simultaneous enactment of CAR's new Mining Code (Law No. 24-008, 2024) creates the legal framework for formalising this sector: the state purchasing agency GEMINCA (Gemmes et Minéraux de Centrafrique) is mandated to buy precious and semi-precious minerals, and SONADERM (Société Nationale de Développement des Ressources Minérales) handles geological survey and exploration promotion. Together, the KP readmission and the new mining code form a coordinated re-opening of CAR's mineral sector to formal FDI.
All existing supply agreements in dormancy since 2013 need new KP-compliant documentation.
taxable revenue stream and incentivising shift from smuggling to formal channels.
documentation — CAR origin is now potentially KP-compliant, but enhanced-vigilance status means additional chain-of-custody verification is advisable beyond baseline KP requirements.
importers are already under heightened scrutiny. CAR readmission adds a new origin-category requiring monitoring teams to distinguish legitimate CAR stones from potential Russia-origin re-labelling.
(SONADERM) and infrastructure rehabilitation will constrain near-term output recovery.
informal channels will persist despite KP compliance framework.
KP has not published explicit thresholds — geopolitical risk of suspension remains.