Prince Harry visits Angolan minefield

Prince Harry has visited an Angolan minefield in Cuando province.

The Duke of Sussex was in Angola to learn about mines and detection practices and meet with the Angolan President, João Lourenço.

He visited alongside the HALO Trust, of which his mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, also visited in what became one of her final trips before her untimely death in 1997.

This was not Harry’s first trip to minefields in Angola. He previously visited as a working member of the Royal Family on a tour of Africa with his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, in 2019.

 

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On his most recent visit, he stressed the importance of Angola being a “mine-free country” and spoke to families who reside near the minefields.

According to the organisation, Harry “helped us deliver life-saving messages to children in the remote village of Mawano in Cuando province, repeating phrases in Portuguese including ‘stop, go back and tell your elders’ to prevent children from detonating deadly landmines and explosives.”

The Prince said, “Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school. Here in Angola, over three decades later, the remnants of war still threaten lives every day.”

The CEO of HALO, James Cowan, said about the Duke’s trip, “We thanked him [Harry] for his extraordinary dedication to and investment in the vision of a mine-free country, and he expressed his intention to continue to support our work with a further significant contract for the next three years.”

The HALO Trust is an international NGO that was first founded in 1988 after the war in Afghanistan. It has now expanded to helping countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. They work to clear landmines to help rebuild communities and save lives.

In Angola alone, close to 88,000 people have been casualties of landmines. They were left behind from a 27-year civil war that raged from 1975 to 2002.

You can learn more about the history of the HALO Trust here.