2006 Photo Contest, Contemporary Issues, 2nd prize
Photographer

Kadir van Lohuizen

Agence Vu for NIZA / Vrij Nederland

01 February, 2004

Boy in the diamond mines of Koidu, Sierra Leone. The diamond industry draws its materials from some of the poorest and most troubled regions in the world. In the past, warlords and rebel groups in countries including Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone have used profits from the mines they control to buy arms and fund wars. The industry has attempted to prevent the spread of these 'conflict diamonds' by setting up the Kimberly Process to document and certify all exports. But conflict diamonds persist, smuggled out of strife-torn areas to neighboring countries and then sold on the black market or mixed with certified stones.

About the photographer

Kadir van Lohuizen

In the following years he worked in many conflict areas in Africa, such as Angola, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Liberia and the DR of Congo. From 1990 to 1994 he covered the transit...

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