Ivory Coast's rebel-held north is smuggling more and more cocoa, cotton and diamonds to neighboring countries for sale on the black market, helping fund rebel military activities, U.N. experts said on Thursday, according to Reuters. Rebels are also personally profiting from the rapidly growing illegal trade in the West African nation's main natural resources, the panel of three experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council obtained by Reuters. Because the goods are not sold through the official state systems, the smuggling is also eating into government revenues already depleted by soaring defense spending in one of the world's most deeply indebted countries, the panel said. The report makes it clear that Ivory Coast, divided since a 2002 civil war, is now on a growing list of African nations plagued by resource wars, in which rebel groups have plundered their countries' natural wealth to fuel conflict and unrest, including neighboring Liberia, nearby Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. --more 2240 Local Time 1940 GMT
