It's a far cry from the clean, mechanized mines of South Africa but it's how much of Africa's gem stones are mined: men dig by hand in pits, gravel and stream bed looking for telltale signs of that elusive stone that will make them rich at least bring in enough money to sustain them and maybe secure the family's future Over one million digger search for diamonds this way in Africa Thewy make less than a dollar a day, while the global diamond trade nets an estimated $80 billion a year But economic woes are not he only human toll of the gem industry. In countries like Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone diamonds were used by Ared mellites and rebels to fan civil war and infill misery on the population. These became known as "blood diamonds. "Global Witness was one of the first non-governmental organization to focus on the issues. Speaking with VOA in London Annie Dunneback says the group set out to documents the tragedy of confit diamonds. "Sierra Leone is one of the most notorious cases where hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of the conflict that saw the eastern part of the country, where the diamond fields are controlled by the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel group backed by then Liberian president Charles Taylor, "says Dunneback.