BREAKING NEWS Duke of Sussex follows in his mother Princess Diana's footsteps as he walks across landmines in Angola
Harry spoke to families who live near Africa's largest minefield as part of HALO's community outreach programme, which aims to keep people safe from landmines until they are cleared by trained experts.
The Duke repeated simple phrases in Portuguese, including 'stop, go back and tell your elders' to prevent children from detonating lethal devices left behind from the civil war which ended in 2002.
He 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.'
He added: 'The Angolan government's continued commitment is a powerful testament to HALO's success in saving lives and reducing humanitarian risk.
'We thank President Lourenço for his leadership and partnership, as well as continued donor support as we work together towards completing the mission of a landmine-free country.'
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BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Prince Harry in Diana's footsteps with landmine walk in Angola
The Duke of Sussex has followed in the footsteps of his mother, Princess Diana, as he visited a charity clearing landmines in Angola."Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school," said Prince Harry, about the continuing threat of mines to the civilian Harry was in Angola supporting the work of the Halo Trust, the charity that had been backed by Princess Diana on her high-profile visit to the Central African country in image of the princess walking through a minefield, in a visor and body armour, had brought worldwide attention to the danger caused by mines left behind after wars had ended. Prince Harry visited a village near to a minefield and met children who are given lessons in how to avoid detonating the Halo Trust has cleared 120,000 landmines in Angola, left over from years of civil estimated 60,000 people have been killed or injured by mines in the country since 2008 and about a thousand minefields are still to be cleared."The remnants of war still threaten lives every day," said Prince Harry, patron of the Halo also spent time with the British charity during a visit to Angola in 2019 when he walked through a partially-cleared minefield and set off a controlled explosion. Earlier this week, Prince Harry met Angola's President Joao Lourenco, where the prince welcomed the government's renewed support for the charity's Cowan, the Halo Trust's chief executive, said: "We will continue our work in solidarity with the Angolan people until every last mine is cleared." In January 1997, Princess Diana had been photographed in Angola in what became a symbolic image of the efforts to stop the harm to civilians from had walked on a path cleared through a minefield and had given her support to calls for an international ban on the use of had sparked a row, with the princess being criticised by some politicians for her the minefield where she had walked in 1997 was cleared and the site is now a thriving community, with local children attending the Princess Diana School. Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
Reuters
4 hours ago
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G20 finance chiefs to meet under tariff cloud in South Africa
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BBC News
6 hours ago
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Trump and South Africa: Mcebisi Jonas 'shunned' and Scott Bessent skips G20 meeting
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The US State Department declined to comment when contacted by the BBC, citing "visa record confidentiality".Jonas's appointment came after President Donald Trump had cut off aid to South Africa, accused Ramaphosa's government of persecuting white people, condemned it for binging a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and for "reinvigorating" relations with Iran - an implacable foe of the US. Priyal Singh, a South Africa foreign policy expert at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, told the BBC that if the DA's claims about Jonas were true, it would be in line with the Trump administration's strategy to give South Africa the "cold shoulder, and cut off channels of communication that it so desperately needs". 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W Gyude Moore, a policy analyst at the US-based Center for Global Development, told the BBC that it was not surprising that South Africa was in Trump's firing pointed out that South Africa championed what Trump's support-base saw as "woke culture". For instance, Ramaphosa regarded the G20 as a forum through which to promote international "solidarity, equality and sustainability", which Rubio had opposed, equating it to "diversity, equity and inclusion", as well as climate Moore said this was also borne out in the Trump's administration's attitude towards South Africa's "black empowerment" policy, accusing it of "race-based discrimination" against white people. Ramaphosa's government sees it as necessary to address the legacy of the racist system of apartheid."I cannot see how the differences can be resolved. South Africa will just have to carry on, and strengthen ties with other countries. It's not the only one in the crosshairs of the Trump administration," Mr Moore added. 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South Africa's central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago said the tariffs could lead to around 100,000 job losses - worrying for a country where the unemployment rate stands at a staggering 32.9%.The tariffs would hit South Africa's agriculture sector hard. This is ironic as Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of the country's Afrikaner farmers, offering them refugee status in the US. It also gives them an opportunity to farm in the US and boost its economy in line with Trump's "America First" policy. More BBC stories on US-South Africa relations: Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?Unpacking the South African land law that so inflames TrumpHow Trump-Ramaphosa confrontation went down in South Africa Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
