On August 21, 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned three individuals and two entities for fueling violence in the Central African Republic (“CAR”). The CAR has been experiencing violent political turmoil since 2013.

The three newly sanctioned individuals, designated pursuant to Executive Order 13667, are Alfred Yekatom, Habib Soussou, and Oumar Younous—all CAR militia leaders who “threaten the peace, security, or stability of the CAR.” According to Treasury, Yekatom and Soussou are both commanders of an Anti-Balaka armed group—Yekatom commands forces near the capital, Bangui, and Soussou commands forces in Boda. Yekatom’s illicit practices include overseeing the murder of civilians, utilizing children as fighters, and operating armed checkpoints to illegally tax travelling vehicles. The third individual, Younous, is a senior commander of the Seleka armed group. According to Treasury, “Younous served as the official coordinator for CAR diamond exports to several countries.”

The two newly sanctioned entities, pursuant to Executive Order 13667, are BADICA and KARDIAM. “BADICA is one of the largest diamond companies in the CAR, and KARDIAM is BADICA’s branch in Antwerp, Belgium.” Even after a 2013 initiative called “the Kimberley Process” prohibited the export of diamonds from the CAR to restrain the trade of conflict diamonds, BADICA continued to move diamonds from the CAR to its associates in Belgium. According to Treasury, between mid-2014 and March 2015, BADICA bought over 1,100 carats of diamonds from mines in the Seleka controlled towns of Bria and Sam Ouandja. KARDIAM also faced pressure from Belgian authorities in 2014 when police intercepted and seized diamonds that were intended for KARDIAM and “almost certainly originated in the CAR.”

The designations by Treasury come one day after the United Nations sanctioned the same individuals and entities. In addition to trade-restrictive sanctions, the United Nations implemented an asset freeze on KARDIAM as well a global travel ban on Yekatom. This is not the first wave of U.N. sanctions targeting the illegal diamond trade from the CAR—in May 2014, the U.N. imposed sanctions on multiple authority figures involved in the trade and violence. Furthermore, the U.N. accused BADICA of “being in contravention of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme” as early as July 2014.