Prince Harry steps down from board of African charity

The Duke of Sussex has stepped down from the board of a major African wildlife charity that had been at the centre of a human rights controversy, reports The Guardian. Prince Harry’s spokesperson confirmed he was no longer a trustee of African Parks, which admitted last year that human rights abuses were committed by its rangers in the Republic of the Congo. The charity’s admission followed an independent review into allegations made by members of the Baka community. In a 2024 report published by the Mail on Sunday, community members accused African Parks rangers of beating, waterboarding and raping locals to stop them from accessing their ancestral forests, which are now in a conservation area. After the review, African Parks published a statement acknowledging that human rights abuses occurred in the Odzala-Kokoua national park, which it manages. A spokesperson for Harry said the duke, who was president of the charity for six years before he became a member of its board of directors in 2023, remained an active and avid supporter of African Parks. Survival International, a global human rights charity that campaigns for the rights of Indigenous people, had called on Harry to step down as a member of the board. Caroline Pearce, the executive director of Survival International, said it was ‘outrageous that for 10 years Prince Harry has served African Parks’ while people working for it had ‘been responsible for abuse and violence against Indigenous people. His departure doesn’t undo that record – African Parks itself must now be held accountable, and must abandon this model of fortress conservation for good’. African Parks said Prince Harry’s. relationship with the organisation dates back to Malawi in July 2016, when he supported one of the largest elephant translocations in history.

Full report in The Guardian