Harry to follow in mother’s footsteps for Angola visit

The Duke of Sussex will retrace the footsteps of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales when he pays homage to her anti-landmine work during a visit to Angola.

Diana famously walked through a partially-cleared minefield in the African nation in 1997 to highlight the plight of those maimed by munitions and to urge for a ban on the weapons.

Harry will return to the same area, now a street in the bustling town of Huambo that has thrived after the landmines were subsequently cleared.

The duke, who is midway through a 10-day tour of Africa, will also see first-hand the work of the landmine clearing charity the Halo Trust when he visits a site where its staff are working.

He will watch as the Trust’s de-mining staff clear munitions so the land can return to productive use and detonate an anti-personnel mine in a controlled explosion.

Harry’s mother never saw her work to help outlaw landmines come to fruition as she died in August 1997 a few months before the international treaty to ban the military weapons was signed.

Angola’s landmines area a legacy of a 27-year civil war which ended in 2002 leaving behind an unknown quantity of munitions that have injured and maimed tens of thousands of people.

In June, the duke gave his backing to a £47 million landmine clearing initiative to help destroy thousands of munitions in a huge conservation region of Angola.

The Angolan government is investing the funds in the Halo Trust, which will work over five years to rid 153 minefields of munitions in the south-eastern province of Cuando Cubango inside the Mavinga and Luengue-Luiana National Parks.