William pays tribute to ‘immense sacrifices' of rangers after fatal attack
Ranger Mario Cristovao was injured and a further two scouts remain unaccounted for.
This attack is yet another brutal reminder of the immense sacrifices made by those protecting our natural world.
The reality is that being a ranger has become one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. My thoughts are with all those affected and their families. W https://t.co/GVlzIdmTGH
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) May 7, 2025
In a personally signed message on X, William called their jobs 'one of the most dangerous' in the world.
'This attack is yet another brutal reminder of the immense sacrifices made by those protecting our natural world,' he said.
'The reality is that being a ranger has become one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet.
'My thoughts are with all those affected and their families. W'
He reposted a UFW statement which said: 'Our heartfelt condolences go to the families and colleagues of Domingos and Fernando as well as the severely injured scout Mario Cristovao who we hope makes a full recovery.
'Our thoughts are also with the families of the two scouts that remain unaccounted for, we pray for their safe return and know the team in Niassa are doing everything possible to find them.
'Rangers are on the frontline of nature protection, and these devastating acts of violence are a stark reminder of the grave danger these individuals face on a daily basis.
'This highlights the critical need to increase our efforts to support the crucial work of nature's guardians.'
In November last year, the prince announced a new life insurance cover for rangers who safeguard Africa's wildlife.
In his keynote speech at the UFW summit, William described the workers as 'guardians of our planet's most precious resources' as he outlined the five-year Ranger Welfare and Standards Initiative, providing 10,000 rangers working across Africa with access to the financial scheme.
He said: 'Rangers are fundamental if we are to meet our global conservation targets for 2030 and prevent the dangerous tipping points that threaten our planet.
'These people do far more than protect wildlife. They are educators. They are community supporters. And they help regulate the sustainable use of natural resources.'
The future king is royal patron of the Africa-based wildlife charity Tusk Trust and in 2022 he paid tribute to 'committed and brave' ranger Anton Mzimba who was shot and killed outside his home that year.
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On January 10, after a brief hearing at Conakry's criminal court, they were loaded on to a prison van with around 10 other handcuffed inmates and taken to prison, the Maison Centrale de Conakry, that same evening. 'The initial drive from the gendarmerie was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. They just put the sirens on, it was [like] something out of Wacky Races. The way they go, scary as hell, in and out of traffic, beeping their horns, it was just bad,' Inch says now. The price of survival The Maison Centrale de Conakry is a decrepit federal prison built in the 1930s by French colonists to contain approximately 300 inmates. Today it houses as many as 2,000 men, women and even children who were born and raised inside the prison's walls. For every existing bed space in the Maison Centrale, there are three other people claiming to occupy it. The deplorable conditions of the prison were laid bare in a 2023 report by the US Department of State. Malnutrition and dehydration were rife among inmates, who had to rely on bribes to staff, paid by family members or charities, for medication and food. Perham answers my questions about his detainment in a thoughtful, measured way, often taking five-second-long pauses before speaking. His replies are interspersed by the sounds of his 17-month-old daughter delightedly ripping up newspaper on the carpeted floor of the meeting room where we talk . Our two-hour-long interview in The Telegraph's office in London takes place only a week after Perham's return to Britain. The physical and mental toll of his ordeal – weight loss, tropical ulcers, a mouth infection, exhaustion and stress – are clearly visible. 'We very much had to take everything one step at a time and just concentrate on what was in front of us. My initial feeling was just an emptiness and shock that we entered as prisoners and our things were confiscated,' he says. When the van passed through the prison's large iron gates, Inch and Perham were offloaded with the other detainees to be processed. Walking towards the prison compound, the rancid smell of sewage and festering, overflowing rubbish bins assailed their nostrils. Inmates openly defecated and urinated into the drains in front of their eyes. As many of the guards were illiterate, Perham and Inch were checked in at the central office by another prisoner, who spoke minimal English. After handing over their belongings, they were left with just the shirts on their backs. Which cell Perham and Inch were to be held in was determined by how much money they could offer the guards. By this point, neither had any cash on them. 'That was rather tricky,' Perham says simply, with a slight smile. Known by inmates as 'Le Couloir', the prison's layout is a long corridor with rooms on each side. Inmates unable to pay were placed in cells with violent, predatory offenders. The pair were told that as white Westerners who were likely to be wealthier than their fellow inmates, they would be staying in a 'comfortable living area with access to a toilet and a comfortable bed'. This, like so many other assurances made to them by the officers, was not the case. Their first cell, where they spent two weeks, was crammed with 30 other prisoners sleeping on mattresses, two abreast, that covered the entire floor. 'How [so] many people fitted in that room, I do not know,' Inch says. The pair's only pitiful defence against the rats, cockroaches and mosquitoes that infested the cell was a small handheld fan they managed to obtain. At the cell door was a huge mound of flip-flops, which all the prisoners took from at random. 'I even found one of the guards with my shoes on,' Perham remembers. Each cell was ruled over by a 'chief', who determined where others were allowed to sit and what privileges they could earn. The distinction between guards and prisoners was blurred. Officers socialised in the same areas and would bully inmates for money. Anything the pair needed – food, medicine, toiletries, a phone or small luxuries, even exercise – had to be paid for with bribes to the prisoners and guards inside. Fortunately, on their first night, they were given a warm reception by 'Kati', a chief in an Arsenal football shirt, who offered them his bed. Inch and Perham spent the first night sleeping head to toe on a mattress in the corner. Perham says: 'You pull together and you work together. You work as one body because the conditions are such that you have no personal space.' Only thoughts of his wife and young daughter, and the precious weekly phone calls he could make to them back in the UK, got him through the terrible days and nights. The water from the showers, which would often run out, was so contaminated that the men would have to douse themselves in disinfectant afterwards. Their rations were a few bowls of rice each day with a thin sauce poured on top. They were only able to survive by bribing their local lawyer to bring in pizzas and burgers with money transferred from their families. Outside the cell, their skin colour made them a target for financial extortion and intimidation. On the first morning of their captivity, as they queued to shower, Inch was kicked in the stomach and attacked by another inmate. 'You would witness violence in some ways most days,' Perham says. Shortly into their detention, they were led into the central, and most violent, part of the prison, reserved for those with no money. 'This was one of the most traumatic parts of the whole story for me, going to that place and finding a way to get out of there,' Perham tells me. He was threatened with what his wife now describes as 'serious, serious abuse', and extorted for money. Through intermediaries inside the prison, the pair were able to pay the £850 needed to secure their place back in the slightly safer cell. On the outside, Perham's wife, Marianne Heikkala, a 31-year-old finance director at a health company, and Inch's partner, Cheryl Potter, a 45-year-old paramedic, mounted a campaign to secure their release through petitions to Guinea authorities and letters to the Foreign Office and John Marshall, the British ambassador to Guinea at the time. A lawyer, supplied by Aerostar to argue their case, spent months trying to convince the local authorities of the pair's innocence. Two weeks later they were transferred to the second cell, where they would spend two and half months living cheek-by-jowl with 80 other inmates, sharing one bathroom. As newcomers, Inch and Perham were made to sit in the centre of the room, this one the size of a railway carriage, beneath a plume of tobacco smoke, unable to stretch their legs. At night, they wore facemasks to try to avoid contracting tuberculosis. The deplorable conditions took their toll, with Inch suffering from malnutrition, muscle wastage and gastrointestinal upsets. The noise inside was a cacophony of shouting from the inmates, many of whom downed energy drinks to keep themselves awake at night, and dozens of chickens and ducks that freely roamed the prison before being slaughtered and served to the inmates. 'You could not hear yourself think. I would have to wear earplugs if I wanted to read,' Perham says. Perham, an ultramarathon runner and long-distance cyclist, meditated each morning and would try to maintain a strict exercise routine of press-ups and sit-ups to get himself through the day. Occasionally they received small luxuries from loved ones, including a parcel packed with books, letters and mementoes. Perham's face lights up when asked about the books his wife was able to get through to him: Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, The Lord of the Rings, The Three Musketeers… 'He said, 'Classics, please.' That was the task,' Heikkala tells me. 'It needed to be a classic and from a Nobel laureate because [that would ensure] a good shelf life.' He didn't want anything that would touch too closely on his own situation. Perham chuckles when shown the picture of him in the cell holding Stephen Fry's Odyssey, a broad smile on his face. 'It really helped, it took me out of where I was and allowed me to see what I was experiencing in a different light, which was extremely powerful.' All the while, the pair would frequently be hauled before the court for updates on their case. They quickly learnt not to put too much hope in the Guinean justice system. On February 25, day 55 of their imprisonment, they were told that the prosecutor had agreed in writing to conditional release without bail. Ten days later, the judge also granted them conditional release. Three days after that, the British ambassador arrived at the prison with the pair's local lawyer to collect them. To their families, February 28 had been communicated as the date that Inch and Perham would finally be coming home. 'They showed us our papers, we went through the whole process of signing out of the prison, giving things away and saying goodbyes,' Perham says. But as they walked through the door, they were pulled to one side by the head of the prison, who had phoned the chief prosecutor and, without any explanation, informed them that they were not being released after all. 'That was crushing,' Perham recalls. 'We had no explanation. We had already mentally prepared ourselves to be outside, and the ambassador was even waiting there to collect us, so being marched back inside was a real low point.' It was then, he says, that the pair 'had to really find what we're made of and pull on the resilience we had'. Freedom at last It was not until April 10 that, after a lengthy appeal process, the court confirmed another conditional release. The next morning, after exactly 100 days of imprisonment, Richard Perham and Paul Inch were finally freed. A picture tells a thousand words. This could not be more true for Inch and Perham's family, whose next communication from the pair was a photo of them in the back seat of a taxi heading towards the British embassy in Guinea. Grinning from ear to ear, and each sporting an impressive beard and moustache, they give a thumbs up. 'It was the first air conditioning we had had for three months,' Perham says, describing the moment they walked into the British embassy. 'It was surreal, and I struggle to remember details. It's such a blur. It was a mix of elation and realisation. We were never truly out of the lion's mouth, but the moment we were in that car [we felt] relatively safe.' The ordeal, however, was not completely over. The men were placed under house arrest in a hotel near the prison for another 40 days, before finally being given their passports and allowed to fly home to Heathrow on May 23. Back on British soil, the pair parted, Inch to recover in hospital in Nottingham, then later at home. 'It was difficult adjusting,' says Perham of coming back to the UK. 'It is the end of a chapter of my life. Right now I am just focusing on healing and being at home with my family.' Aerostar has denied responsibility for Perham and Inch's imprisonment, stressing that it had no responsibility for their travel arrangements and that it was a subcontracted effort under the direction of Fronteering Travel Services Inc, a subsidiary of Expedition Forces. A spokesman also denied that the company had failed to secure the necessary approval for occupying Guinean airspace. Van de Velde, the head of Expedition Forces, says in an email: 'We were contracted by Aerostar and sent there on their behalf just to recover the balloon, and that's where our involvement ends.' He says that he subcontracted some of the work to Inch and Perham as independent contractors, adding, 'I was not able to get the visa in time and make it in time for the recovery. That is the only reason I was not sitting next to them in prison.' During our conversation in London a week after his release, Richard Perham's anger towards Aerostar and its alleged failings in safety briefings is palpable. 'There were three things that went wrong here: there was inadequate risk briefing, no emergency protocol, and there was no monitoring system. These are three things that a company needs to do if they are sending people to an environment. This cannot happen to people. There must be measures in place that protect people from doing work like this, because this shouldn't have happened.'
