Harry to continue mother’s work to clear Angola of landmines

The Duke of Sussex will attend a Chatham House discussion about mine clearance in an African country visited by his mother Diana, Princess of Wales a few months before her death.

Diana famously walked through a minefield cleared by the Halo Trust in Angola to highlight the plight of those maimed by military munitions.

The princess never saw her work to help outlaw landmines come to fruition as she died before the international treaty to ban the military weapons was signed in 1997, a few months after she was killed in a Paris car crash.

Harry will join a panel of experts in central London taking part in the Chatham House Africa Programme seminar, Connecting Conservation, Sustainable Development and Mine Action, staged in partnership with the Halo Trust.

Harry
Harry

The duke and those present will hear a call to action from the Angolan environment minister Paula Coelho.

Angola has some of the world’s most important remaining wildernesses including the tributary system for the Okavango Delta.

But the presence of landmines and the remnants of the civil war make large areas of the country unsafe for animals and local people whose livelihoods depend on the natural environment.

Harry has already championed the efforts of his mother, visiting Angola in 2013 to support the work to clear landmines, and before leaving the event will give a short speech.

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