From Reuters

The U.N. Security Council is set to partially ease a decade-long arms embargo on Ivory Coast and lift a ban on diamond exports, diplomats said on Friday, despite claims by U.N. experts the measure failed to stop illicit trafficking of rough diamonds.

The West African country, emerging from a decade-long crisis that culminated in a brief war in 2011, has been pressing the Security Council to end the diamond embargo that was put in place in 2005 the wake of an initial 2002-2003 civil war.

A French-drafted resolution circulated among the 15 council members proposes lifting the diamond ban and easing the 2004 arms embargo to allow government forces to purchase light weapons without the approval of a U.N. committee. The government will still have to notify the committee of any purchases.

The council is due to adopt the resolution next week.

“There is consensus,” said one council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Security Council made a similar change last year to an arms embargo on Somalia to allow the government in Mogadishu to strengthen its security forces. With the U.N. peace keeping force in Ivory Coast reducing its size, diplomats said the council also wants Abidjan to be able to bolster it forces.

Another council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said lifting the diamond embargo would help wipe out the illegal trade, which he said had been bolstered by the ban.

Ivory Coast received a clean bill of health in November from the Kimberley Process, the body tasked with preventing the sale of so called “blood diamonds” from fuelling armed conflict.

The draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, states that the diamond ban would be terminated “in light of progress made towards Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) implementation and better governance of the sector.”

Reported by Michelle Nichols/Read more at Reuters