The Central African Republic is known to be one of the leading exporters of diamonds.
And one of the reasons for on-going conflict in this country is over the rights to these diamonds.
Violence, discrimination, and poverty...are some atrocities caused by this civil war.
And then comes religious conflict, disparity, and child labor...all of things that become very apparent when you visit the diamond mines.

The mine workers say...“Had these diamonds not existed in this country, these atrocities may have never happened.
We’ re a rich country but we’ re poor.”

The diamonds mined in this country are referred to as the ‘blood diamonds’ .
This is because it is said that these diamonds are the cause of the civil war which brings much suffering to the Central African Republic.
The continuous wars and conflicts in this country always involves these diamonds.

Christians and Muslims have historically coexisted in The Central African Republic.
And they have historically fought not only over religion, but also for rights.
Conflict began once people found out about the value of diamonds, and that these diamonds could be mined in this land.
The conflict does not end domestically, and has been tossed around endlessly by the interest of some neighboring and other countries.

The Banegbele Camp, located in the western half of the Central African Republic, is also referred to by the people as the ‘Mine of Miracle’ .
This is because despite most of the mines in the western half of the country being controlled by the Christians, this mine has Muslim miners working alongside the Christian miners, thus being a ‘miracle’ .

However when you actually go...You don’ t actually see the ‘miracle’ .
In fact I was shamed of myself for being so caught up in the term ‘miracle’ .
The sight of the sweating miners in itself was simply beautiful.
There you do not see Christians nor Muslims.
Looking at the naked sweating miners, there was no way to tell the difference of their religions.