Prince Harry welcomed to Angola for solo trip 28 years after Diana's historic landmine walk
Prince Harry has travelled solo, without the Duchess of Sussex, to promote the work of the HALO Trust, a charity he is a patron of that works to clear landmines and other explosive devices left behind by conflicts.
Harry previously visited Angola in 2019, donning body armour and a protective visor while setting off a controlled explosion in a partially cleared minefield similar to one visited by his mother.
On Tuesday (15 July), the charity said Harry attended a discussion with the country's president on removing landmines.
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
How the climate crisis and aid cuts could devastate global supplies of vanilla
The region known as Sava in Madagascar – roughly the same size as Wales – is responsible for around 80 per cent of the world's vanilla crop. While vanilla was first cultivated by the Maya in the forests of Mexico, it is in this region, in the northeast of Madagascar, that it found a home for modern times, after French colonists brought over the vanilla orchid in the 1880s. Chemical synthesis of the single vanillin chemical may have driven the 'vanilla' to become the world's most popular fragrance, found in everything from makeup to bug repellants, and now a term synonymous with blandness and mediocrity. But connoisseurs maintain that no laboratory product can match the subtle, creamy-rich flavour of the natural aroma, which contains nearly 200 chemical molecules. Madgascar's climate and soil proved ideal for vanilla, giving pods a higher concentration of natural vanillin than those grown in other markets. A large pool of smallholder farmers is also readily available to grow this labour-intensive plant, which is essentially a delicate vine that grows between the trees of the rainforest. Individual pods must all be picked by hand, before being blanched in hot water, massaged, and left to cure in the sun over a three-month period. Take a two-hour internal flight northeast from Antaniravo, Madagascar's bustling capital city, and you will find yourself in the lush green rainforests of Sava. Unlike the semi-arid southern part of the island or the naked mountains of the centre, Sava – which takes its name from the towns of Sambava, Andapa, Vohémar and Antalaha across the region – is Madagascar as seen on TV: A world-beating biological hotspot holding 70 per cent of the country's primary forest, and home to thousands of plants and animals. 'Arriving in villages in Sava, you drive up an unpaved road to these houses made of wood and straw, and you wonder where exactly the vanilla is,' explains Ernest Randriarimalala, a Malagasy advisor working with the NGO WaterAid who recently visited the region. 'It's really hidden away: there's a little bit in the forest here, a little bit there, and it can take many hours to walk between the patches.' With farmers waking up in the small hours to work 12-hour shifts, vanilla farming has never been easy. But the challenges faced by vanilla farmers are becoming ever more profound with the advent of climate change: a crisis that experts warn represents a potentially existential threat to Madagascar vanilla. The UN has labelled it the fourth-most climate vulnerable country in the world, and farmers in Sava are already warning of the threat to vanilla from changing rain patterns and the ever growing risk of tropical cyclones. According to Dasy Ibrahim, a Malagasay project manager at the NGO Care, high temperatures combined with increasingly volatile rain patterns are making vanilla vulnerable to diseases, particularly the fungal-borne disease fusarium wilt. At the same time, the vanilla flowering period has shifted in recent years, running from September to January, when it used to begin in November. 'This flowering phenomenon is attributable to stress caused by high temperatures and persistent, strong trade winds,' Ibrahim explains. A combination of this earlier flowering and delays in the rainy season means that a large number of pods are ripening earlier. But only those pods that have matured for a full nine months after pollination are judged to meet the required standard. That means that a large chunk of the crop becomes void, says Ibrahim. Edlyne Fenozara, a vanilla farmer in the village of Tsaratanana, has seen these impacts first-hand. 'Before we had regular rain and our vanilla plants grew properly. Now, it is getting warmer with less rain,' she says. 'Because of the lack of rain, we always have some vanilla dying as the rain comes later than it used to.' Ferozara has also experienced the devastation that tropical cyclones can cause to both vanilla plants and the villages in which farmers and their families live. 'The wind can rip off all the vanilla plants from the ground and throw them 20 meters away,' says Fenozara. 'Trees and falling branches are also breaking vanilla plants and the overly wet soil causes root rot.' Between 2000 and 2023, 47 tropical storms and cyclones hit Madagascar, with Sava one of the regions worst hit. Some 740,000 people were left homeless over that period - and in just the last few months, Cyclone Dikeledi and Tropical Storm Jude have displaced 30,000 more. 'Every year from January to March is the cyclone season and I personally pray to God so no cyclones with strong winds come across our area and destroy my plantation,' says Dricia, another vanilla farmer, who works in a village called Andrahanjo. Gael Lescornec, executive director at industry advocacy group the Sustainable Vanilla Institute, says that another big problem related to climate shocks is the volatile nature of vanilla prices when the shocks hit. 'Volatility makes it hard to give confidence to the market and you can invest in opportunities around vanilla and vanilla farmers,' she says. After Cyclone Enawo, a category 4 storm, displaced 500,000 people as it made landfall on the island in 2017, the price of vanilla bean pods surged to more than $400,000 per tonne. Vanilla became so valuable that farmers at the time reported widespread theft and gang violence. More recently, high production volumes coupled with lower-than-expected global demand have sent prices plummeting, with low prices creating economic difficulties for a region that is so heavily dependent on one crop. 'I really wish we could get a better price,' says Dricia. 'You can get a slightly better price if you sell your vanilla three or five months later than the others but for many of us, that is impossible as we are running out of everything and we can't afford to wait'. The impacts of climate change are heightened by the pervasive levels of poverty that exists in the Sava region. An isolated island in the India Ocean, Madagascar is neither culturally nor geographically close to its neighbours in East Africa, making it hard to forge close trading relationships. Madagascar's GDP per capita stands at just $506, and around 70 per cent of the population live on less than $1.90 per day. Houses that are typically built from materials like mud and bamboo stand little chance of withstanding major cyclones, while Sava's road system largely becomes impassable during heavy rains. Much of the population in Madagascar has long been reliant on overseas aid – though the remoteness of some towns and villages as well as generally weak governance in the country makes the provision of aid a challenge, even before recent aid cuts. According to Paul Melly, a researcher on Madagascar at the think tank Chatham House, there is a pattern of the political elite in the country being 'largely detached from rural concerns'. He adds that the country's authorities have often 'struggled to develop a clear long-term poverty reduction and development strategy', which makes it hard for donors to invest as they are unable to 'plug in' to an existing strategy. Many of the vanilla wholesalers in the global north that partner with vanilla farmers have taken matters into their own hands. German fragrances giant Symrise, for example, has been investing in environmental and social protection programmes in partnership with more than 7,000 farmers in the region for the last two decades, according to the company's Bernhard Kott. 'To improve standards and prevent poverty, we have worked with organisations including German international development finance company GIZ, and charity Save the Children,' he says. 'Madagascar is a poor country and suffering from aid cuts. Companies using vanilla have to take responsibility and invest in local programs and improve human aspects, and invest in agricultural practices to protect natural resources.' Tanja Stumpff, from GIZ, confirmed that the German government was working with private companies 'to maintain vanilla cultivation' and help 'improve living conditions'. WaterAid, meanwhile, is partnering with Captain Morgan – a rum brand that belongs to spirits giant Diageo and added 'real Madagascar vanilla' to its recipe in 2023 – in a three-year programme to deliver clean water and sanitation to small-scale vanilla farmers in Sava. According to WaterAid statistics, 43 per cent of SAVA's population does not have access to drinking water infrastructure, and only 10 per cent of people have access to safe and hygienic toilets. Residents of the three villages where WaterAid is active are beginning to beginning to build new latrines and engage in other improved hygiene practices, the NGO reports. But there is a broader sense from speaking to Malagasay people with connections to the region that the challenge of fighting poverty in Sava is not being met. 'We are helping a few villages. But the task of providing universal access to clean water in the area is huge,' says WaterAid's Ernest Randriarimalala. 'Not having access to clean water means that farmers are working in extreme heat and humidity for 12 hours a day, before they have to come home in the afternoon and have to spend several hours fetching water. 'But no matter how tiring it is for them, there is no other choice,' he adds. 'If there are any problems with the vanilla crop, then it becomes even harder.' Sava's poverty reduction challenge has became even more challenging in the face of aid cuts from government aid agencies, and in particular in the aftermath of USAID programme cuts announced earlier this year by Donald Trump. The US has historically been the single biggest country donor to the country's health programme - with USAID giving to Malagasy healthcare worth $787m over the past five years - while cuts announced in 2025 were worth an estimated $62m, or the equivalent of 54 per cent of the USAID country programme. In Sava, projects from which USAID has withdrawn include The Harena Project, a wide-reaching programme that promotes local initiatives to improve natural resource management and support community livelihoods, according to Care's Dasy Ibrahim. USAID has also withdrawn from The Mizana Project, a programme working with the mayors of 20 Sava municipalities to improve natural resource governance and better deal with local corruption. To add fuel to the fire, President Trump has threatened trade tariffs of 47 per cent on Madagscar, in a move that could devastate one of the world's poorest nations. Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the 'myriad of shocks' faced by Madagascar - including aid cuts, trade tariffs, and weather-related events - threatened growth in the country. Sava is certainly not the poorest region of Madagascar - the South of the island is in the grips of a devastating drought and food crisis - but even if vanilla helps bring in a stream of income, services including healthcare, education, and infrastructure maintainance are still highly dependent on external funding, according to the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative's Gael Lescornec. 'The south is a humanitarian issue, the north is a chronic poverty issue,' she explains. Consumers in the Global North have come to expect not only natural vanilla flavouring in food products, but also an ethical product that does not depend on the exploitation of people further down the supply chain. Evidence from the ground in shows that the vanilla supply is threatened on both these counts. As Lescornec puts it, with communities facing growing climate and developmental challenges, the ongoing failure to support resilience, 'threatens the long-term supply of sustainably-produced vanilla, as well as the very supply of vanilla.'
STV News
10 hours ago
- STV News
Prince Harry retraces his mother's footsteps as he revisits Angola's minefields
Watch as Harry walks through a cleared minefield in Angola, following in his mother's footsteps. Credit: The HALO Trust The Duke of Sussex said 'children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school' as he visited Africa's largest minefield, continuing his mother's campaign against landmines. Prince Harry, who is the patron of the anti-minefield HALO Trust, visited Cuito Cuanavale in Angola, where he witnessed the dangers still faced by local families. He wore a protective vest as he walked through a cleared path in a minefield, echoing Diana, Princess of Wales' visit to the country in 1997. The Prince also helped the landmine clearance charity set off controlled explosives at the site. The HALO Trust said that at least 60,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines in Angola since 2008 – and more than 1,000 minefields remain to be cleared across Angola. Prince Harry with children in Cuando province. / Credit: HALO Trust Harry met families who live in a remote village near Africa's largest minefield as part of the charity's community outreach programme, which aims to keep them safe from landmines until they're cleared by experts. 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.' '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.' Harry also travelled to the country in 2019 and walked through a minefield to highlight the ongoing threat of the munitions. During the visit, he retraced his mother's footsteps in Humabo, where she was famously photographed walking through a cleared path in a minefield. The images of her in protective equipment gave the anti-landmine campaign global recognition. Harry held a meeting with the President Lourenço in Luanda on Tuesday, where he welcomed 'the Angolan government's renewed commitment to supporting demining efforts across the country.' The HALO Trust said they discussed a new three-year contract between the government and the charity. CEO James Cowan said: 'We are hugely grateful to President Lourenço for his leadership and to the Duke of Sussex for his personal commitment to HALO's work in Angola. 'This new contract is an important step forward in our mission to make Angola mine-free, and we will continue our work in solidarity with the Angolan people until every last mine is cleared.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
The Independent
12 hours ago
- The Independent
Prince Harry recreates Princess Diana's famous landmine walk in Angola
The Duke of Sussex recreated Princess Diana 's historic Angola landmine walk on his solo visit to the country 28 years after her trip. Prince Harry, visiting as a patron of landmine clearance charity the Halo Trust on Wednesday (16 July), gave advice to children in a remote village near Africa's largest minefield on avoiding detonating mines. Speaking in Portuguese, Harry said: 'Stop, go back and tell your elders.' The Duke highlighted the threat of the munitions in Angola, the same nation Diana, Princess of Wales visited in 1997 in a plea for the world to ban the weapons. Iconic images showed Diana, wearing a protective visor and vest, walking through a minefield being cleared by the Halo Trust.
