Prince Harry urged to step down from Africa parks board amid reports of abuse and rape by rangers

Britain's Prince Harry is being urged to step down from the board of African Parks amid a report that its rangers raped and tortured Indigenous people in Africa. 

An investigative report by the Mail has claimed that guards employed by African Parks abused the Baka people in the Republic of Congo. Members of the Indigenous group once known as pygmies who live in Odzala-Kokoua National Park claim that the guards have stopped them from entering forests where they have “foraged, fished, hunted and found medicines for millennia” by violent means, the outlet reported.

Community activists have alleged 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. Other allegations include a teen boy who claimed he was groomed for prostitution by another guard, and a man who said he was whipped with a belt while his head was forced underwater. The report also claims that medical staff were “subjected to intimidation to cover up abuse.” 

Prince Harry's involvement with African Parks

Harry got involved with African Parks back in 2016 and the following year became the president of the non-profit conservation group that manages national parks across the continent.

In 2023, after serving six years as president, he was elevated to an officially appointed member of the Board of Directors, the governing body of the organization.

African Parks currently 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, its website stated. 

The conservation organization works with governments and local communities for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks.

Survival International, a London based human rights organization, wrote to Prince Harry in May 2023 when he was still the president of the organisation, to inform him of concerns that the Baka people were being abused by armed guards who work for African Parks. 

The outlet reports that Harry was also sent a video message from a Baka man named Eyaya, who said, “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.”

Did Harry react to the earlier video?

According to reports, the Duke of Sussex “responded within a fortnight 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, since then the campaigns director of Survival International received no further updates from there and said it was discouraging when the Duke of Sussex joined the board of directors later in 2023. 

“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,” said the director of Survival International to The Times. 

Survival International is now urging Prince Harry to step down from the post, which was further outlined in a statement shared Saturday.

"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,” the campaigns director told The Times.