The existence of blood diamonds in Sierra Leone is one which extends to create a severe history of violence not only to the country of Sierra Leone but also to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Guinea. This might be probably be due to the need of some groups, and the country to centralize control over the production of these diamonds.
Sierra Leone is known to be one of the poorest countries in the world. It is in fact very poor that it ranks as one of the poorest countries in the World—for the past few years. This poverty is existent even despite the abundance of natural resources of the country—particularly what can be a huge economic industry: the diamond industry.
There had been numerous accounts of violence in Sierra Leone due to the desire of some groups to gain control over the diamond industry, by hook or by crook. The intention of some was to gain profit from the “disorganized criminal” mining industry by using the guise of warfare to divert the attention of some. Some historical analysts say that the trajectory of the war was not really to be victors in the war, but to have the civil war serve as a guise to engage in criminal activities. The government wanted more diamond mining investors in the country, after the pull-out of the investment of De Beers, who were once directly involved with the diamond mining industry in Sierra Leone and had plans to mine the diamonds offshore. After the pull-out of De Beers in the 1980s, the Sierra Leone government pursued other investors.