omersukrugoksu/iStock(CAPE TOWN, South Africa) — Prince Harry followed in the footsteps of his mom, the late Princess Diana, Friday, visiting the southern African nation of Angola to put a spotlight on de-mining.
The Duke of Sussex, 35, visited a working de-mining field after spending the night at a de-mining camp funded by Halo Trust, a U.K. charity working with the Angolan government to make the country landmine free by 2025.
Princess Diana famously visited Angola with Halo Trust in 1997, at the height of the landmine crisis.
Her spotlight, particularly a photograph of her in a flak jacket and protective mask while visiting a landmine minefield, turned the clearing of landmines into a humanitarian issue.
More than two decades later, local organizations told ABC News they hope Harry’s visit to Angola is a “seismic shift” like Diana’s visit was in showing the world how common and threatening landmines still are.
Harry, the youngest of Diana’s two sons, left his wife, Duchess Meghan, and their infant son, Archie, in Cape Town, South Africa, to take this trip to retrace his mom’s path in Angola.
In his first official visit to Huambo, Angola, Harry is being greeted by the same official, Gov. Joana Lina, who was the official host for Princess Diana’s visit, according to Buckingham Palace.
He is visiting the same spot where Diana was photographed, which is now a busy area with schools, houses and businesses, a far cry from the scene his mom saw in 1997.
Harry will also visit the Huambo Orthopaedic Centre and dedicate it in the name of his mom, who visited in 1997.
Angola is still home to hundreds of thousands of landmines, according to Halo Trust. One man who lost his leg to a landmine in the country in 2002 told ABC News that Harry coming to Angola gives him hope.
Harry spoke on Thursday in Botswana about what an attachment he feels to Africa, in part because of his mom’s death when he was just 12.
“I came here in [19]97, 98, straight after my mum died,” he said. “It was a nice place to get away from it all, but now I feel deeply connected to this place, and to Africa.”
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.