<P> Having regained peace, Liberia is attempting to construct a legitimate diamond mining industry . The UN has lifted sanctions and Liberia is now a member of the Kimberley Process . </P> <P> In December 2014 however, Liberian diamonds were reported to be partly produced using child labor according to the U.S. Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor . </P> <P> The civil war started in 1991 and continued until 2002, costing at least 50,000 lives and causing local people to suffer killings, mutilation, rape, torture and abduction, mainly due to the brutal warfare waged by rebel group, The Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) claimed that they supported causes of justice and democracy in the beginning, but later on they started to control the villages and to prevent local people from voting for the new government by chopping off their limbs . Victims included children and infants . It created numerous examples of physical and psychological human harm across Sierra Leone . </P> <P> Moreover, they also occupied the diamond mines in order to get access to funding and continue support of their actions . For example, during that time, RUF was mining up to $125 million of diamonds yearly . Since diamonds are used as a funding source, they also created opportunities for tax evasion and financial support of crime . Therefore, United Nations Security Council imposed diamond sanctions in 2000, which were then lifted in 2003 . According to National Geographic News, all of these civil wars and conflicts created by rebel groups resulted in over four million deaths in the African population and injuries to over two million civilians . Another latest conflict diamond statistic from Statistic Brain, revealed that Sierra Leone has been listed as second highest in the production of conflict diamonds which is shown as 1% of the World Production, after Angola which had produced 2.1% in 2016 . The percentage of Sierra Leone's diamond production that is conflict diamonds is 15% in total . It shows that the production of conflict diamonds still exists in Sierra Leone nowadays . </P>

What countries in africa are most affected by conflict diamonds