At the giant Ndassima gold mine in Central African Republic, gunmen keep the peace - for a price - among hundreds of miners who swarm over the steep sides of the glittering open pit, scratching out a living.
The mine, owned by Canada's Axmin, was overrun by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels more than year ago. It now forms part of an illicit economy driving sectarian conflict in one of Africa's most unstable countries.
9 May 2014 . Ndassima, Central African Republic. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola
A former Seleka soldier looks at a woman pans for gold at the open pit mine.
Seleka fighters - many from neighbouring Chad and Sudan - swept south to topple President Francois Bozize in March last year.
Months of killing and looting provoked vicious reprisals by Christian militia, known as "anti-balaka", that pushed the rebels back, splitting the landlocked country of 4.5 million people into a Muslim north and the Christian south.
Axmin suspended activity at the Ndassima mine in late 2012 after rebels occupied its camp. The firm says it is monitoring the situation.
9 May 2014 . Ndassima, Central African Republic. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola
At Ndassima, 60 km north of Seleka's military headquarters in the northern town of Bambari, sweat-soaked labourers toil to produce some 15 kilos of gold a month - worth roughly $350,000 on the local market, or double that in international trade.
Further north, diamond fields around Bria and Sam Ouandja provide revenue for rebels, who extract protection money and sell diamonds to dealers in Sudan and Chad, experts say. From there, the gems are trafficked away.
"Commanders on both sides are profiteering from this conflict. Both the anti-balaka militia and Seleka are involved in gold and diamonds," Kasper Agger, field researcher for the Enough Project, a Washington-based think-tank.
"If we are going to make peace, we need to offer them an economic alternative."