Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire began to develop a fledgling diamond mining industry in the 1990s. A coup overthrew the government in 1999, starting a civil war. The country became a route for exporting diamonds from Liberia and war-torn Sierra Leone. Foreign investment began to withdraw from the Ivory Coast. To curtail the illegal trade, the nation stopped all diamond mining, and the UN Security Council banned all exports of diamonds from Côte d'Ivoire in December 2005.