Blair and Chirac must require transparency of resource revenues as a key to African development
Tony Blair’s call for a clamp down on companies that fuel wars across Africa is a landmark statement that must be followed with genuine regulatory action. The lack of transparency in resource extraction industries across Africa sees the corporate sector providing major funds to unaccountable military and political elites who then use conflict to cover corruption and embezzlement in countries such as Angola (oil and diamonds), Democratic Republic of Congo (timber, diamonds, coltan), Sierra Leone (diamonds, Liberian timber) and the Sudan (oil).