BBC News School Report @ LCS

This morning one of the world’s largest uncut diamonds was found by a Christian pastor. The diamond is one of the twenty largest diamonds ever to be found with it weighing 709 carats. It was found in Sierra Leone’s Kono district.

The diamond is now safely locked up in Sierra Leone’s central bank in Freeman; it was first taken to President Ernest Bai Koroma. In a statement released early this morning, President Ernest Bai Koroma “thanked the local chief and his people for not smuggling the diamond out of the country”. Mr Koroma added that the owners should get “what is due to them” and it should “benefit the country as a whole”.

A BBC correspondent said that the diamond is thought to have a blemish on the inside which may decrease the value. Pastor Emmanuel Momoh’s discovery has not yet been valued but it is the biggest diamond to be found in Sierra Leone since 1972, when the 969 carat Star of Sierra Leone was dug up.

Sierra Leone is well known for its diamond industry but it has had a mixed history. Diamond sales were a part of the country’s decade long civil war when rebel groups exchanged them for weapons.

There has been a spate of large diamond finds in recent years at mines in South Africa, including a 1,109 carat diamond in Botswana in 2015