Latest news with #minefield
Daily Mail
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Prince Harry speaks of his 'heartbreak' during minefield trip to Angola after following in his mother Princess Diana's footsteps to visit country
Prince Harry has spoken of his 'heartbreak' in a statement released after his trip to Angola, where he followed in Princess Diana 's footsteps by walking through a minefield. The Duke of Sussex, 40, touched down in the South African nation over the weekend to complete the walk with his charity, The Halo Trust. His crossing of the cleared minefield mirrors Princess Diana's in January 1997, when the nation experienced a brief period of peace following a two-decade civil war that had left the country contaminated by more than 15 million landmines. The prince also walked the minefield back in 2013, which has now been transformed thanks to clearance by Angolan men and women trained by HALO. However, he was not joined by his wife Meghan Markle after reportedly deciding it was too dangerous for her to join him. In comments shared to Harry and Meghan's website following his participation in a landmine safety education session in the remote village of Mawano, the Duke said what he had witnessed 'breaks my heart'. Referring to his children Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, he said: 'As a father to young children, it breaks my heart to see innocent children still living and playing next to minefields. 'All of us have a duty to protect children and future generations from the harms of war, both present and past.' Discussing the absent of his wife, Meghan, a source said: 'The duke won't let his wife go to England over security concerns, so there was no chance he'd allow her to go to Angola to walk across landmines.' A source involved in organising the event told the MailOnline: 'Usually these trips help to drive a bit more money from the government.' The session formed part of Halo's community outreach programme. The Prince also repeated safety instructions in Portuguese, taught local children how to recognise and avoid landmines, and spoke to families. Harry 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 Duke 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.' During a meeting with the President, Harry said, per 'This commitment is about more than removing deadly devices. 'It's about unlocking potential in a country that has so much - enabling children to walk to school safely, allowing farmers to grow crops, attracting sustainable development and bringing back wildlife tourism.' Harry also said: 'This work isn't just about removing explosives - it's about enabling opportunity, development, and long-term peace.' In 2019, when Harry came on board as Halo's patron, the Angolan government pledged £46million to create wildlife corridors and protect endangered species in conservation areas. It set a target of clearing all landmines by 2025 and Harry is said to hope that his presence there will boost efforts to meet the target. Angola is in southwestern Africa, along the Atlantic coast. It was ravaged by a brutal 27-year civil war until 2002 and the country is still grappling with the legacy of landmines, with millions buried across the countryside. Halo has cleared more than 123,000 landmines since 1994, and works to transform former war zones into farmland, national parks and 'safe' villages. Despite the progress made, more than 1,000 minefields remain across Angola. Princess Diana's walk in 1997 took place when the nation experienced a brief period of peace following a two-decade civil war that had left the country contaminated by more than 15 million landmines. Wearing a Halo Trust flak jacket and helmet, the striking photographs of the royal went down in history, particularly as she died later that year in a car crash. At least 60,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines in Angola since 2008, although the exact number of casualties is not known and is likely to be higher. HALO has cleared more than 120,000 landmines and 100,000 bombs from the country, but at least 80 Angolans have still been killed by them in the last five years. Over 1,000 minefields remain to be cleared across the entire country, including on the periphery of the Lobito Corridor, a strategically important railway that links Angola's Atlantic coast to the mineral heartlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. James Cowan, CEO of The HALO Trust, 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.' This is the latest of several significant visits Harry has made to Angola in recent years. In September 2019, after he became patron, he retraced the exact steps his mother took near Huambo, causing a sensation across the globe. The duke also visited the remote Dirico region, where he toured a newly cleared minefield, a detonated a landmine, and spent a night camping by the Cuito River. He then visited the town's Princess Diana Orthopaedic Centre, met female deminers, and toured a demining camp in southeastern Angola. In September 2024, he joined Angola's foreign minister at a United Nations Halo event in New York. Again, Meghan steered clear of the event despite the fact it was in the US. Sources at the time said she did not attend because the trip was part of his 'independent schedule' during Climate Week. The trip comes in the wake of a secret peace summit held between Harry's two most senior aides and King Charles's head of communications in central London earlier this month The meeting was described as a charm offensive by the Sussexes to turn around their negative public image. Harry and Meghan's new chief of communications, Meredith Maines, met with Tobyn Andreae, the King's communications secretary, at the Royal Over-Seas League a three-minute walk from Clarence House, the monarch's London residence, on Wednesday. Also present was Liam Maguire, who runs the Sussexes' PR team in the UK. Images of the rendezvous raised hopes of a reconciliation between Harry, 40, and his father, 76. The meeting, held at a private members club in London, was the first step in a 'rapprochement process' to restore the broken relationship between the duke, his wife Meghan and the rest of the royal family. While royal experts claimed a wounded Prince William will feel less inclined to resolve the feud than his father King Charles, they added the monarch would have undoubtedly consulted the heir to the throne before conducting any peace talks with Harry's aides. Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: 'The King and Harry are currently, we understood from Harry's interview on the BBC, not speaking. This meeting obviously is a sign things are moving forward. 'The King would never have made these moves without William's support and understanding. William and Catherine are the future of the monarchy. 'He has undoubtedly been furious at the way the Sussexes have behaved and undoubtedly regards Harry's behaviour as treason of a sort. They reportedly have not spoken in over two years.' He added: 'Ideally, the Sussexes might like to drive a wedge between the King and the heir to the throne. They won't succeed.' However, following the summit, the Mail revealed that Prince Harry has 'no plans' ever to move back to Britain despite the recent hopes of a reconciliation with King Charles. Following news of a secret peace summit between aides of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and his father, it was thought the Windsor family feud could be resolved, paving a way for the prince to return to the UK. However friends of Harry and Meghan have said the couple are 'very happy' in California and are never likely to return. A source, who is close to Harry, 40, said: 'They're very happy living in and raising their family in California and, as it stands, have no plans to leave.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Duke of Sussex follows in his mother Princess Diana's footsteps as he walks through a minefield in Angola
The Duke of Sussex has mirrored his mother Princess Diana by crossing a minefield in Angola. Prince 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 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. His crossing of the cleared minefield mirrors Princess Diana's in January 1997, when the nation experienced a brief period of peace following a two-decade civil war that had left the country contaminated by more than 15 million landmines. Harry 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 Duke 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.' At least 60,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines in Angola since 2008, although the exact number of casualties is not known and is likely to be higher. HALO has cleared more than 120,000 landmines and 100,000 bombs from the country, but at least 80 Angolans have still been killed by them in the last five years. Over 1,000 minefields remain to be cleared across the entire country, including on the periphery of the Lobito Corridor, a strategically important railway that links Angola's Atlantic coast to the mineral heartlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. James Cowan, CEO of The HALO Trust, 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.'
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Copycat Harry is at it again... how many times is he going to pull the Mum card? William must be thrilled watching him pretend to be Diana: JAN MOIR
Sometimes I feel very sorry for Prince Harry, and sometimes I very much do not. Watching him walk across an Angolan minefield this week, with his expression set to Hollywood-wattage-warzone-grim, caused a mixture of emotions in my calloused heart.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Prince Harry Follows in Diana's Footsteps as Specter of Land Mines Returns
In 1997, wearing body armor and surrounded by warning signs emblazoned with skulls, Diana, Princess of Wales, drew the world's attention to the brutal and enduring consequences of land mines by walking through a minefield in Angola, which was then enduring a civil war. On Wednesday, her son, Prince Harry, made the same journey through a partially cleared minefield, at a time when countries are beginning to break away from the international anti-land mine treaty drawn up in the months after Diana's visit. Harry visited Cuito Cuanavale, a remote community around 350 miles from the live minefield that Diana walked through in Huambo 28 years ago. During a previous trip in 2019, Harry had retraced his mother's steps on the same piece of land, which had been made safe and reclaimed for homes, schools and businesses. Both he and his mother traveled with The Halo Trust, a British land mine clearance nonprofit. The group said that Harry had joined a group of de-miners in what it believes to be Africa's largest remaining minefield, and helped to destroy two anti-tank mines from the conflict that raged between 1975 and 2002. The timing is symbolic. Months after his mother's visit to the southern African country in January 1997, 164 nations signed a United Nations convention banning antipersonnel land mines, leading to a virtual halt in global production of the weapons and the destruction of stockpiles. This year, at least five countries will leave the convention. Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced their withdrawal in March, saying in a joint statement that the security of their region had 'fundamentally deteriorated' since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and that it was 'essential to evaluate all measures to strengthen our deterrence and defense capabilities.' The withdrawal will come into effect in September, and Finland will follow two weeks later. Antipersonnel land mines are already being used in the Ukraine war — including some supplied by the United States — and the latest announcements have raised fears that the indiscriminate weapons, and the terrible destruction they wreak on children and civilians, will spread once more. The Halo Trust said that at least 60,000 people were known to have been killed or injured by land mines in Angola since 2008, and the true total was likely to be higher. Of those, 80 deaths have come in the past five years, despite continued clearance efforts.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Harry revisits Diana's footsteps in Angola with landmine walk
Prince Harry recreated his mother Princess Diana 's historic landmine walk in Angola, 28 years after her original visit to the country. Visiting as a patron of the Halo Trust, the Duke of Sussex advised children in a remote village near Africa's largest minefield on how to avoid detonating mines, telling them in Portuguese: "Stop, go back and tell your elders." His visit highlighted the ongoing threat of munitions in Angola, echoing Princess Diana's 1997 plea for a global ban on such weapons. Diana's original visit featured iconic images of her in protective gear walking through a minefield being cleared by the Halo Trust. Watch the video in full above.
