Pastor finds diamond of more than 700 carats in Sierra Leone

A pastor found a huge 706-carat diamond in Sierra Leone and handed it over to the government of the country's president, Ernest Bai Koroma.
The diamond was found in the eastern province of Kono by Emmanuel Momoh, who occasionally searches for precious stones.
According to the Sierra Leonean government, President Koroma thanked the diamond for not being smuggled out of the country and assured that "the marketing process will be transparent."

After being certified by experts, the diamond will be one of the largest ever registered. Its value has not yet been estimated.
In 2015, it was extracted from the Karowe mine in Botswana, the largest diamond found in a hundred years, of 1,111 carats.

The largest diamond in the world is the 3,106-carat Cullinan found in South Africa in 1905.
This diamond was divided into several huge stones - the main ones were used to adorn the British royal scepter and the imperial crown, which are part of the British Crown jewels.
Sierra Leone was marked by the trafficking of so-called "blood diamonds" during the civil war (1991-2002).