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Koyame-Marsh
CONCLUSION
The paper analy ses the pre-war and postwar econom ic conditions in Angol a, Congo, and Sierra
Leone and the role play ed by natural resour ces in their respect ive conflict. These three sub-
Saharan Afri can countries are rich i n natura l resources endowm ent with mineral such as
diamonds, petroleum , gold, bauxite, r utile, coltan and m ore. However, in spite of their rich
natural resources endowment, these countries’ pre-war economic conditions were charact erized,
among other things, by low level of per capita GDP, higher level of poverty, inequalit y in the
distribution of income, higher inflation rate, disproportionately large agricu lture sector, and
widespread corruption of government i nstitutions. T hese long-term poor econom ic conditions
were considered to be amongst the factors that caused rebellion and conflicts in these countries.
The paper also shows that the civil w ars led to more suffering for the people of these three
countries by worsening t he already degenerate d prewar socio-econom ic co nditions. Indeed,
during the war, Congo an d Sierra Leone had, among ot her thin gs, negative per capita GDP
growth rates while Angola’s per capita GDP had almost zero growth. In the 3 years of peace after
the war; Congo, Ang ola, and Sierra Leo ne have focu sed on rebuil ding their infrastructures. This
led to the growth in per capita GDP and great improvement in the industry and service sectors of
these countries. However, they still ha ve a long wa y t o go. Indeed, they are still so me of the
poorest coun tries in the world when it comes to their hum an developm ent indexes. Their
agriculture sectors are recovering but a t a very slow rate. These countries also need to reform
their institutions through greater transparency in government spending and serious fight against
corruption so that government revenues can be spent efficiently for the benefit of all.
Moreover, this paper dem onstrates that economic and financial power held by rebel groups fro m
the control of minerals and their trade led to th e failure of several signed peace agreements. Even
UNSC sanctions against the illicit trade in diam onds by rebel gr oups in these countries were, at
time, not suc cessful in curbing the war because of the lack of r espect for these sanctions by the
international community. Indeed, rebel groups i n these countries were doing all the y can to hold
on to their economic power regardless of the UNCS san ctions. This was difficult but not
impossible to do as we dem onstrated in this pape r. Thus, given the failure of UNSC sanctions in
curbing the war other determinants of war had to be factored into cease-fire agreements if peace
was to be achieved. Thus, if it is true that long-term poor economic conditions were am ong the
factors that l ed to these c onflicts, a su ccessful peace a ccord had to put the m at the cente r of
negotiations. An im portant polic y im plication of this study is tha t, for any conflict resolution
agreement to be succes sful in civil w ars, econo mic issues r elated to the conflicts have to be
addressed. It’s only then that a lasting peace could possibly be achieved.
Finally, the sim ple coincidence that th e war in An gola, Congo, and Sierra Leone all en ded in
2002 should not be overlooked. Indeed, we believe that UNSC sanctions against the illicit trade in
diamonds and the establish ment of the certificat e of origin for diam onds by t he Kim berley
Process worked together to force the end of conflicts in these countries, especially in Congo and
Sierra Leone. Indeed, as previously mentioned UNSC sanctions alone were not very successful at
curbing the illicit trade in diamonds. However, when UNSC sanctions were eventually combined
with the certificate of orig in for diam onds, trade in blood d iamonds became even harder if not
impossible to do. This created financial problem s for rebel groups and made it difficult for them
to continue the war. How ever, it is worth m entioning that m any other natural resources such as
petroleum, c oltan, and gold, were at the hear t of these conflicts in addition to diam onds,
providing revenues to the rebel groups for the r estocking of weapons. However, diam onds were
the main source of revenues for rebel groups in t hese conflicts b ecause of their higher m arket
value. Thus, funds from the sales of diam onds c ontributed exten sively t o the fueling and the
continuing of conflicts in these countries and made any progress towards peace very difficult.
ASBBS E-Journal, Volume 4, No.1, 2008 119