Prince Harry Gives Stirring Speech on Angola Landmine Clearance: "There Is an End in Sight"
In 2013, Prince Harry vowed to continue his mother’s lifelong mission to rid Angola of all landmines. Today, he was on hand to witness the announcement of a $60 million initiative to finally bring the country to safety.
On Monday, Harry attended the Chatham House policy institute in central London to hear a call to action by Paula Coelho, Angola’s Minister for the Environment. She announced her government will be making its first $20 million donation this year to begin clearing all landmines surrounding the Angolan Okavango watershed.
The Duke of Sussex spoke candidly about the issue's importance, calling the situation a humanitarian issue, “not a political one.” His words were a direct reference to the late Princess Diana’s frustration that her work with de-mining charity Halo Trust was deemed too controversial for a member of the royal family.
The prince listened as a panel of eight experts, including Halo Trust CEO Major General James Cowan and African Wildlife Foundation CEO Kaddu Sebunya, discussed how bringing the country back to safety will allow for wildlife and communities to live in safety and for tourism to return.
Speaking about his own travels to the country, Harry told the auditorium how the threat of military explosives has forced communities to remain in poverty. “In Cuando Cubango, in the far southeast of what is a vast, beautiful country, I saw a struggling community in a deserted landscape unable to make use of the land, yet the potential to turn this land into a sustainable source for its people,” he said of his 2013 visit. “In fact, I was told just the other day of the positive transformation in Huambo since my mother walked that minefield all those years ago.”
Diana famously walked through an Angolan minefield cleared by the Halo Trust in 1997 to highlight the plight of local people seriously injured by military weapons. Just a few months after her death that year, an international treaty was signed to ban all IEDs. Her passion has since become Harry’s.
The prince, who first visited Chatham House in 2017 to take part in a landmine removal scenario planning exercise, expressed his shock at learning that funding for IED clearance had been cut by nearly 90 percent in the last decade, and urged the international community not to forget his mother’s work. Angola, he said, needs to complete its "long journey, full of heartache and frustration” to safety. “[Countries] must not leave a job left half done.”
He added, “This unique ecosystem is one of the great wildlife refuges of the world-enriching its biodiversity for all of humanity. My hope is that through this collaboration, minefields can be cleared, land can be protected, wildlife can be free to return to where they once roamed, and Angolans can reap the rewards by coexisting with the one constant that will draw people in from all over the world-the extraordinary setting that they call home.”
“I truly believe that Angola will become a shining example to the rest of the continent.”
- The Duke of Sussex pic.twitter.com/u9Iyzft5gB- Omid Scobie (@scobie) June 17, 2019
The Okavango is one of the last truly wild places on earth, and home to almost 50 percent of the world’s elephants. But large parts of the Okavango river system are inaccessible to conservationists because of 1,155 military explosives across 153 minefields. Angola’s de-mining will not only bring safety to communities, but it will also allow the country to recover from conflict and begin construction and growth of its economy, particularly in the areas of trade and eco-tourism.
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan are likely to see some of the work taking place in person when they go on tour of Africa and South Africa this October. Angola is on the overseas itinerary and their visit will provide a powerful message to potential tourists: This land is safe.
“Considerable progress has been made but there is still a huge amount to do, which is why it encourages me to see so many of you here today as we shine a light on the work that’s been done, but also how we can help moving forward,” Harry said. “There is an end in sight which has already been discussed, and that isn’t always the case. So let’s make the most of this opportunity.”
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