Nelson Sapato Mafefe

Artisanal Diamond Mining in Northeastern Angola Nelson Sapato Mafefe

Natural resources are sources of income for a given country when they are well exploited. To achieve the millennium goals, that is, the sustainable development of communities, it is necessary to invest in people because they are part of this community. However, the artisanal exploitation of diamonds in Angola predates its independence on 11 November 1975. The Portuguese state that colonized Angola up until its independence had already exploited this resource, but it brought no benefits to the local population or to the country in general. In the northeast of Angola where artisanal diamond mining is practiced lives an extreme misery of living conditions, where populations survive on less than five dollars a day. Given the conditions in which the population lives, the need arose for an investigation into the contribution of artisanal diamond mining in Angola and its negative impacts on the environment, given that the new challenges of the 21st century are to exploit mineral resources in a rational manner without harming new generations.