UN peacekeepers suspected of diamond smuggling in Central African Republic

Portuguese police have uncovered a smuggling ring allegedly involving the country’s UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.

Gold, diamonds and drugs have been smuggled out of the country on military planes, authorities said.

Yesterday more than 300 inspectors carried out raids on nearly 100 homes across Portugal to collect evidence for Operation Myriad.

At least ten people have been arrested, including some former military personnel.

The armed forces said in a statement that soldiers may have been used as couriers to transport the illicit goods from the Central African Republic into Portugal.

Joao Cravinho, the defence minister, said he had alerted the UN last year after the Portuguese military became aware of suspicions connected to two Portuguese soldiers in December 2019.

Cravinho told the national news agency Lusa that the soldiers were no longer in the Central African Republic.

“Everything suggests that these were activities undertaken on their own initiative by a handful of soldiers and not something systemic,” he said in an interview published in Diario de Noticias.

The Portuguese armed forces said they had immediately ordered more control checks on officers arriving from missions abroad.

“The armed forces totally repudiate these behaviours which contradict the values of the military institution,” they said, adding that those involved would be held accountable.

Hundreds of Portuguese military personnel have been deployed to the gold and diamond-rich African country in the past few years in peacekeeping missions.

Augusto Santos Silva, the foreign minister, claimed that Portugal’s image had not been damaged by police searches for suspected trafficking of diamonds at the Commando Regiment.

The UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York yesterday that the organisation would take action after seeing media reports.

The Central African Republic has been gripped by violence since Seleka, a coalition of mostly Muslim rebels, seized power in March 2013.

Despite being a mineral-rich nation the Central African Republic’s per capita income is listed as being approximately $450 a year, making it one of the lowest in the world.

An estimated 30 per cent to 50 per cent of diamonds produced each year are smuggled out of the country. The remainder accounts for between 40 per cent and 55 per cent of export revenues.