Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, followed in her mother, Princess Diana’s footsteps in supporting the Halo Trust’s charity initiative in neutralising landmines in Angola.
An estimated 60,000 people have been killed or injured by mines in Angola since 2008. The Halo Trust has cleared 120,000 landmines in Angola, left over from years of civil war. About a thousand minefields are still left to be cleared.
Prince Harry visited a village near a minefield and met children who were being given lessons on how to avoid detonating the explosives. "Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school. The remnants of war still threaten lives every day," he said, about the continuing threat of mines to the civilian population.
According to estimates by the United Nations, even with advanced technology used to detect and clear land mines, it will approximately take 1,100 years for all mines in the world to be cleared. Angola had been one of the most landmined countries since the end of the bloody fight for independence from Portugal, and civil war from 1975 to 2002.
Earlier this week, Prince Harry met Angola's President João Lourenço, where the prince welcomed the government's renewed support for the charity's work. The Halo Trust is a charity backed by Princess Diana since her high-profile visit to the Central African country in 1997.
In January 1997, Princess Diana had been photographed in Angola in what became a symbolic image of the efforts to stop the harm to civilians from landmines. She had walked on a path cleared through a minefield and had given her support to calls for an international ban on the use of landmines.
The minefield where she had walked in 1997 had been cleared, and the site is now a thriving community, with local children attending the Princess Diana School.
Earlier this week, Prince Harry met Angola's President Joao Lourenco, where the prince welcomed the government's renewed support for the charity's work.
The Halo Trust's chief executive, James Cowan, said, "We will continue our work in solidarity with the Angolan people until every last mine is cleared.”
