Botswana has rejected plans by the G7, a group of Western countries, to have all African diamonds sent to Antwerp, Belgium for certification.

Gaborone claims that such a move which is designed to enforce sanctions on Russian diamonds would cause a logistical nightmare and increase costs for African diamond producers.

Botswana’s minister of minerals said he’d made it ‘abundantly clear’ to the G7 that his country was opposed to the proposal. Lefoko Moagi added that it would pose a threat to national sovereignty, given the central role that diamonds play in the Botswanan economy (contributing more than two-thirds of the budget’s revenue).

The government also questioned why the G7 wants to introduce a new system of certifying diamonds when no loopholes have been pointed out in the Kimberley Process (KP) that was adopted in 2003 to keep so-called conflict diamonds from the market.

During a visit to Botswana, a G7 delegation failed to give concrete answers when asked by journalist how the proposed certification system would differ from the KP.

US Businessman, Erik Prince, the Founder of American private military company, Blackwater suggests that African countries should be recolonised because African leaders are corrupt.