Nestled among the cocoa plantations of western Ivory Coast is a gold mine that does not feature on any official maps. It is not run by an industrial mining company, nor does it pay taxes to the central government. The unlicensed mine is a key part of a lucrative business empire headed by the deputy commander of the West African nation's elite Republican Guard, United Nations investigators allege. Here: A gold prospector sits and eats close to a soldier at a gold mine near the village of Gamina, in western Ivory Coast, March 18, 2015. (Photo by Luc Gnago/Reuters)

A marine aims an RPG-7, a portable rocket- propelled grenade launcher, during military exercises conducted by the Russian Pacific Fleet' s naval infantry unit at the Bamburovo firing range on February 2, 2017. The drills are a part of preparations for the Suvorov Attack and Sniper Line army competitions. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)

An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga takes part in a graduation ceremony at the Zakho military academy in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Zakho, some 500 kilometres north of Baghdad, on January 30, 2018. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)

A man and a woman both wounded by what locals say was recent shelling by Ukrainian forces, react as they sit in an ambulance in Donetsk August 23, 2014. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Soviet Army soldiers sit on their tanks in front of the Czechoslovak Radio station building in central Prague during the first day of Soviet-led invasion to then Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. (Photo by Libor Hajsky/Reuters)

The Wadi al-Salam cemetery, Arabic for “Peace Valley”, is seen in Najaf, south of Baghdad, Iraq August 3, 2016. The world's largest cemetery, in Iraq's Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, is expanding at double its usual rate as Shi'ite militias bury their dead from the war against Islamic State. The Wadi al-Salam cemetery, Arabic for “Peace Valley” has a special place in the hearts of Shi'ite Muslims as it surrounds the Mausoleum of their first imam, Ali Bin Abi Talib, a cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Mohammad. (Photo by Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)

Five-year-old Ghazal al-Hussein poses inside a classroom in the rebel-controlled area of Maarshureen village in Idlib province, Syria March 12, 2016. March 15 marks the 5th anniversary of peaceful protests against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, leading to the devastating civil conflict in the country. These are portraits of five-year-old Syrian children who have only known conflict in their country. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

A pistol is lies near the body of a drug suspect who was killed with two others in an alleged “buy-bust” operation before dawn on Friday, September 30, 2016, in Caloocan city, north of Manila, Philippines, in the continuing “War on Drugs” campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte said he would be “happy to slaughter” 3 million addicts. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)