Ivory Coast ex-rebel profiting from banned diamond trade - U.N. experts

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - A senior Ivory Coast army officer is breaking a diamond embargo and may be using profits to buy arms, U.N. experts have found, dealing a potentially embarrassing blow to government efforts to have the ban lifted.

Ivory Coast is the only country in the world still subject to a U.N.-imposed ban on diamond exports but it 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 conflicts.