Prince Harry’s African charity admits human rights abuses after rainforest families said their rangers raped and beat tribespeople

An African wildlife charity part run by Prince Harry has admitted that human rights abuses were perpetrated by its own rangers following an explosive investigation by the Mail on Sunday.

The Duke of Sussex was the president of African Parks for six years until being elevated to the governing board of directors two years ago.

Harry is said to be fully briefed on the scandal and along with the board has been involved in bringing about change to deal with the issues.

The findings are another blow to the Duke of Sussex after his Sentebale charity was engulfed by scandal when he resigned from the board and its chair Sophie Chandauka accused him of ‘harassment and bullying at scale’ – a claim that is denied.

Last year an investigation by The Mail on Sunday discovered evidence of intimidation and abuse in the rainforests of the Republic of the Congo by guards managed and paid by the African Parks charity, including allegations of rapes and beatings.

The MoS found first-hand testimonies of atrocities inflicted on the Baka, an indigenous people once known as pygmies, to stop them entering forests where they have foraged, fished, hunted and found medicines for millennia.

One woman told of being raped by an armed guard while clinging to her newborn baby. And a teenage boy claimed he was groomed for paid sex by another guard.

A community activist said a Baka man died after being beaten and jailed without getting treatment for his injuries.

Prince Harry was the charity’s president for six years until being elevated to the governing board of directors in 2023. He is said to have been fully involved in plans to change the charity

Ella Ene with son Daniel. She told the Mail on Sunday how she was allegedly raped by an African Parks guard while clinging to her baby

African Parks then launched an independent review and the charity has now admitted that human rights abuses occurred in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park since December 2023.

The results of the probe, carried out by London law firm Omnia Strategy LLP, has gone directly to African Parks. 

The charity said in a statement: ‘The board of African Parks has reviewed Omnia’s advice and endorsed the management plan and timeframes to implement the recommendations resulting from this process.  

‘African Parks acknowledges that, in some incidents, human rights abuses have occurred, and we deeply regret the pain and suffering that these have caused to the victims.

‘Omnia’s process also highlighted several failures of our systems and processes that were insufficient for the level of responsibility given to us, particularly in the early years of our management of Odzala.’

Mail on Sunday reporter Ian Birrell with two Baka men who say they were beaten

Omnia said its investigation has been ‘thorough and proportionate without attempting to be exhaustive’.

But there is anger that the findings have not been made public.

Survival International, which supports indigenous people, has reportedly raised the abuse of the Baka people with Prince Harry.

Director Caroline Pearce said: ‘We still don’t know the details of what they found, because African Parks has refused to allow the findings to be made public.

‘It has committed to more reports, more staff and more guidelines, but such approaches have not prevented horrific abuses and violations of international human rights law in the decade or more that African Parks has known of these atrocities, and there is no reason to believe they will do so now.’  

African Parks was rocked by scandal  in January 2024 when the Mail on Sunday went to Congo and discovered horrific abuses by its guards.

It was the middle of the night when young mother Ella Ene was abruptly woken by someone knocking at her house. 

She assumed it was her husband returning from a neighbouring village – but it was a guard from the African Parks conservation charity demanding she got up immediately and followed him.

‘The guy was wearing their uniform and had a gun,’ said Ella Ene. ‘He was threatening me, saying “I’ll shoot you” if I did not do as he said. He told me he wanted to take me to their camp.’

She bundled up her baby Daniel – one month old and too young to leave at home – to follow the African Parks guard on the ten-minute walk to his base.

With brutal but brave honesty, she described what happened next, and how the man raped her beside the road as she clung in terror to her child. She said the guard ordered her to the ground, tore off some of her clothes and assaulted her in the pitch-black night, ignoring her screams for help and the cries of her baby.

‘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.’

The Baka community live within one of the African Parks areas 

The fast-expanding charity manages huge swathes of forests and national parks in 12 African countries in partnerships with governments, and boasts that it saves wildlife by working with local communities.

One man, who claims his head was forced under water while his hands were cuffed and his back whipped repeatedly with a belt, said: ‘Some guards are bad people and their activities should be stopped. What they are doing is cruel and inhumane.’

A community activist told the MoS a Baka man died after being beaten and jailed without getting treatment for his injuries. 

One woman told of being raped by an armed guard while clinging to her newborn baby. 

And a teenage boy claimed he was groomed for paid sex by another guard. There are claims that medical staff were subjected to intimidation to cover up abuse.

The raped mother also says she has not received the majority of the £1,300 compensation a court ordered her attacker to pay after he was briefly jailed.

The disturbing revelations came as Prince Harry was promoting his global mission as a social justice campaigner and fighter for equality.

The weekend before the Mail on Sunday’s investigation emerged, his leading role with African Parks was championed when he was given a Living Legends of Aviation award as ‘a humanitarian, military veteran and mental wellness advocate’ at a ceremony in Los Angeles. 

A citation praised him as an ‘environmentalist’, saying he ‘has dedicated his life to advancing causes that he is passionate about and that bring about permanent change for people and places… including African Parks.’ 

But one Baka man who says he witnessed a brutal attack by African Parks guards told the MoS that he wished Harry would use his power to intervene in order to ‘stop the pain and suffering caused to our community’.

Harry, who has said Africa is the place ‘where I feel more like myself than anywhere else in the world’, announced his appointment as president of the charity around eight years ago while guest-editing BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. 

His involvement began with a trip to Malawi to assist an elephant project in 2016 and his role changed last autumn when he joined the charity’s board of directors.

‘What I see in the African Parks model is exactly what conservation should be about – putting people at the heart of the solution,’ he has said. ‘Conservation can only be sustained when people living closest to nature are invested in its preservation.’

Odzala-Kokoua National Park is home to more than 400 bird species, 110 types of mammal and at least 4,400 plant varieties

When we put the findings of our investigation to Harry, a spokesman for his foundation, Archewell, said: ‘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.’

Harry was warned about ‘appalling human rights abuses’ being committed by its rangers in a letter from Survival International, a campaign group fighting for the rights of indigenous people, in May 2023.

The letter stated: ‘The scale and volume of violent intimidation and torture make clear that this is not aberrant behaviour by a few individuals.’ It called on the Prince ‘to use your influence and position to stop these abuses being committed by an organisation to which you have lent your name’ – and was backed by a direct video appeal to Harry and Meghan from a Baka tribesman.

The Baka communities live in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, an area of rainforest bigger than Yorkshire that is home to gorillas and forest elephants. 

One Baka man said: ‘The forest was left to us by our parents and ancestors. Everything we have is found in the forest – our food, our medicine. We suffer so much without it. They are destroying our heritage and our people.’

The park has been managed by African Parks since 2010, when it signed a 25-year deal with the Congolese government.

The charity is funded by the European Union, US and rich philanthropists. It has been given British aid and the People’s Postcode Lottery, based in Edinburgh, has handed it £8.2 million since 2015.

Omnia Strategy LLP said in a statement: Since ‘December 2023, a team comprising of specialist lawyers from Omnia Strategy LLP and Doughty Street Chambers have been conducting an independent investigation into allegations of human rights violations against local communities and autochthone populations occurring in or connected to the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of the Congo. 

‘The allegations, raised by Survival International and others, implicated African Parks Network and the Odzala-Kokoua-Lossi Foundation, notably through the alleged wrongdoing of ecoguards’.