Prince Harry Charity Launches Rape and Torture Investigation

African Parks—which counts Prince Harry as a director—has launched an investigation into allegations its guards raped and tortured tribespeople in a Congolese jungle.

Survival International, which represents Indigenous people around the world, contacted African Parks and Harry and Meghan Markle directly to warn them of the accusations from Baka people in Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

A journalist from The Mail on Sunday also interviewed a number of Baka people who have alleged abuse by the guards, including a woman who says she was raped while she clutched her newborn baby.

Ella Ene is quoted by the newspaper describing how a guard came to her house in the night and ordered her into the forest, warning "I'll shoot you."

"I was holding my baby while being raped and trying to protect him," she said. "My first reaction had been to protect my baby. It was very violent."

Another man said he was cuffed, whipped on the back with a belt and his head forced under water.

He told the newspaper: "Some guards are bad people and their activities should be stopped. What they are doing is cruel and inhumane."

Harry and Meghan's Archewell Foundation said in a statement: "When the Duke became aware of these serious allegations, he immediately escalated them to the CEO and chairman of the board of African Parks, the appropriate people to handle next steps."

The alleged attacks appear to have taken place against the backdrop of efforts to prevent tribespeople from entering certain areas of forest.

The MoS quoted a Baka activist who said: "When they found people in the forest, they'd kick them out. They would beat people. After this happened one, two, three times, people do not go back into the forest."

African Parks has said in an annual report that part of its role in the park is "to support
communities in developing income-generating activities, to improve living conditions and
reduce their dependence on the unsustainable exploitation of Odzala's natural resources."

Survival International said on X, formerly Twitter: "We're calling on Prince Harry to step down from the board of @AfricanParks, and its funders to withdraw their support - until the Baka are allowed to return to Odzala park > their home < with land ownership rights recognised."

And that appeared to be echoed by Moyambi Fulbert, a villager in Sembe, interviewed by the MoS: "I'd tell him to stop supporting African Parks. He is a powerful man. He eats well and lives well—but we don't have anything now and it's all because of African Parks.

"Maybe he doesn't know what they are doing to our people. But if he was a good person, he'd stop the pain and suffering caused to our community."

Harry, who was African Parks president from 2017 to 2023 and is now on the board of directors, has previously spoken with pride of his role with the organization, which manages huge areas forest on behalf of governments in a number of African countries.

Harry said in a statement for the charity's 2019 annual report: "Since my first trip to Africa as a young boy, I knew I would keep returning to this continent if I could, for its wildlife, for its people, and for its vast expanse.

"That is why I am so fortunate to have found African Parks and to have been asked to join them in 2017 as their President.

"I am hugely grateful for their clarity of purpose and am more motivated than ever to do all I can to advance the mission of protecting wild places, for wildlife, for people and for generations to come."

He added: "I want us all to be able to tell our children that yes, we saw this coming, and with the determination and help from an extraordinary group of committed individuals, we did what was needed to restore these essential ecosystems."

African Parks said in a statement from its board and chief executive: "We are aware of the serious allegations regarding human rights abuses by eco-guards against local people living adjacent to Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo, which have recently received media attention.

"We became aware of these allegations last year via a Board Member who received a letter from Survival International.

"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.

"This is an active, ongoing investigation that is our highest priority as an organization, and we encourage anyone with knowledge of any abuses to report them to us or to the Congolese law enforcement authorities which will assist with the investigation and ensure that the perpetrators of any abuses are brought to justice."

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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