Prince Harry supports mine clearance in Angola, almost 30 years after Diana

Prince Harry supports mine clearance in Angola, almost 30 years after Diana

Prince Harry traveled to Angola at the beginning of this week to talk to the country's president about the evacuation of landmines. This happened almost three decades after his mother's memorable visit to the South African country.

Commitment to a mini -free Angola

The Duke of Sussex shared his vision of a “min -free land” during a meeting with Angolan President João Lourenço on Tuesday, as the International NGO, the Halo Trust, reported.

"We thank him [Harry] for his extraordinary commitment and his investments in the vision of a min -free country. He has expressed the desire to continue to support our work by wanting to conclude an important contract for the next three years," said James Cowan, the CEO of the non -profit organization, in an opinion.

The background of the Landminen problem

Princess Diana campaigned 28 years ago during her visit to the Central Angolan city of Huambo for the evacuation of landmines. The pictures of Diana, who is considered one of the most famous personalities in the world, how they walked a cleared path along an active mine field, have made a significant contribution to mobilizing public opinion against these fatal devices.

For decades, international and national actors have fields, villages and cities with landmines and explosives littered, during the bloody struggle for independence From Portugal and the subsequent civil war from 1975 to 2002, in which thousands of people were killed or injured.

The international pressure on land mines bans

Human rights organizations have repeatedly called for an international agreement to ban landmines, which ultimately came into force just a few months before Diana's death in August 1997. In September 2019 Harry followed the Step of his mother Along the mine field in Huambo.

The lasting consequences of the country mines

According to the Halo Trust, around 88,000 Angolans were victims of landmines. The devastating consequences of this brutal heritage can still be felt today. In 2019, the mother of an eight -year -old Landminen survivor remembered her grief about the death of her nephew, Frederico, who was killed in an accident at the age of ten when the two boys played on a country mine.

The explosion injured her son Manuel so badly that his leg had to be amputated. "The war is long over," Ermelinda told CNN at the time. "Many people pass this place. There are always many people there and they never found the mine. It had to be the day when the children were there."