Prince Harry was urged to resign from his position on the board of African Parks amid reports of abuse and rape being committed by its rangers. An investigation was published Saturday, January 27, 2024, by the Mail on Sunday. It claimed that guards employed by African Parks abused the Baka people in the Republic of the Congo. The report says that the rangers raped, beat, and tortured the indigenous people. Community activists also claim that a Baka man died after being beaten and jailed without medical care, while a woman said she was raped by an armed guard while holding her newborn baby.
More allegations that have been raised are from a teen boy who says he was groomed for prostitution by another guard, a man who says he was whipped with a belt while his head was forced under water and that medical staff were “subjected to intimidation to cover up abuse.” There are no details on when these alleged incidents took place.
Harry has been involved with African Parks since 2016. In 2017, he became president of the nonprofit conservation group that manages national parks across Africa.
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In 2023, he was officially appointed a member of the board of directors, which is the governing body of the organization, after six years of serving as president. According to its website, the organization manages 22 national parks and protected areas in Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
According to The Times, London-based human rights organization Survival International tried to tell Prince Harry in May 2023 of concerns that the Baka people were being abused by armed guards who work for African Parks.
It was also reported that he was sent a video from a Baka man named Eyaya, saying, “The eco-guards are stopping us from going into the forest. I’d like whoever is sending all these people here to hear what it’s like. I want the person who is in charge of the eco-guards and gives them their orders to hear this. Now there is only torture in the forest.”
Prince Harry was reported to respond "with an initially sympathetic letter, promising to escalate the concerns to the most senior ranks of the organization, including the chief executive, Peter Fearnhead.” However, the campaign's director of Survival International told The Times that they never received any further updates, saying it was discouraging when Prince Harry joined the board of directors.
“He said he took it seriously, but it didn’t achieve the change we had hoped to see. Then, very disappointingly, we learnt that Harry had joined the board of directors,” Fiore Longo said. A representative for the Duke of Sussex declined to comment.
Now, the organization is taking matters into its own hands and is urging Prince Harry to step down from his position. “We hope that his stepping down from the board of directors will give a clear signal to this organization that human rights abuses in the name of conservation are not tolerated any more,” Longo stated.
In a statement released by the CEO of African Parks, it appears the group believes Survival International failed to cooperate. "We became aware of these allegations last year via a Board Member who received a letter from Survival International,” the statement said. “We immediately launched an investigation through an external law firm based on the information we had available, while also urging Survival International to provide any and all facts they had. It’s unfortunate that they have chosen not to cooperate, despite repeated requests, and we continue to ask for their assistance."
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