Sierra Leone's "blood diamonds" helped fuel atrocities in the impoverished West African nation in the 1990s. The war has now been over for a decade, and the country's most valuable resource is no longer known as the product of a conflict. But it remains a contentious issue.
As Sierra Leoneans go to the polls Saturday, the country's diamonds are at the heart of political parties' manifestos. Opposition parties accuse the government of mortgaging lucrative diamond fields for a "pittance," while President Ernest Bai Koroma boasts of his "ambitious" efforts to transform the industry.
In diamond-rich Kono district, in the eastern part of the country, previous elections have been fiercely protested.
While the country's parliamentary election is expected to be relatively peaceful, this hub of diamond mining in the country shows a bitter irony: It's resource rich, but poverty abounds as development here has not kept pace with other parts of the country.
In Koidu, the capital of Kono, women and children stand knee deep in the fields on either side of the dusty potholed roads.
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Small-scale artisanal mining has sustained this area since diamonds were discovered in 1930, but it is hard work and the pay is low.