These two teenagers discovered a 6 million euro diamond but didn't make a fortune: how is that possible ?

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It all started in a muddy hole filled with rainwater. Komba Johnbull and Andrew Saffea, two 16-year-olds, were working as “diggers” in a diamond mine near the village of Koyadu, Sierra Leone.

These young people, marked by difficult backgrounds – Saffea forced to abandon his studies for lack of money, Johnbull bearing the family scars of the civil war – survived thanks to the relative generosity of their employer, Pastor Emmanuel Momoh, who provided them with food and equipment in exchange for their work.

On March 13, 2017, Johnbull spotted a shiny stone in the water. With no prior experience in diamond identification, he picks up what turns out to be the 13th largest diamond in the world. What happens next could have been a modern-day fairy tale: Pastor Momoh, the owner of the mine, chooses the legal route over the black market. An agreement is reached for an auction with the profits split between the various parties.

The Mirages of Fortune

The auction raises $6.53 million, or about 5.5 million euros. The split seemed fair on paper: 40% for Pastor Momoh, two million euros for the state, 1.3 million for the region, and about 300,000 euros for the minors. The two teenagers each received 80,000 dollars, a colossal sum in a country where the average daily income is 5 dollars.

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But money slips quickly through their inexperienced fingers. Saffea dreams of studying in Canada and spends a significant portion of her fortune in Ghana, entrusting $15,000 to an agent for travel expenses that never materialize. Today, she sleeps in a stable abroad, tending horses to survive. Johnbull, for his part, has at least managed to buy a house in Freetown, but admits to having wasted much of the money on clothes and displays of wealth.

The legacy of the “peace diamond”

The contrast is striking between the fates of the two discoverers and that of Pastor Momoh, who has built a comfortable new life for himself in Freetown, including a school near his home. He claims to have redistributed a million dollars to various causes, but the promises of development for the village of Koyadu – roads, electricity, clean water &#8211 have remained largely a dead letter.

The “peace diamond” which was supposed to symbolize a new era for Sierra Leone ultimately illustrates the persistence of inequalities in the exploitation of natural resources.

• Two Sierra Leonean Teens Discover 709-Carat Diamond Sold for $6.53 Million
• Despite Their Share of $80,000 Each, They End Up in Precarious Situations Due to Lack of Support
• The “Peace Diamond&#8221 failed to deliver on local development promises, illustrating the persistent challenges facing Africa's diamond industry

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