A wildlife charity that counts the Duke of Sussex as a board member is investigating allegations that its guards carried out rape and torture in Republic of Congo.
African Parks, which manages 22 national parks and reserves in 12 countries, said investigations were its “highest priority” and encouraged anyone with information about any abuse to contact it.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has been listed as a member of the nonprofit’s board of directors after serving as its chairman for six years.
Guards run and paid for by the charity beat, raped and tortured indigenous people in the rainforest of Republic of Congo, according to allegations first reported by The Mail on Sunday.
A statement from the board and chief executive of African Parks said it had a zero-tolerance approach to abuse and was committed to upholding local and indigenous rights.
The company said it had launched an investigation after charity Survival International alerted an unnamed board member to allegations of abuse by guards. But it accused Survival International of failing to cooperate with its investigation.
“We are aware of serious allegations of human rights violations against local people near Ozala-Kokua National Park in the Republic of Congo, which have recently received media attention,” the statement read.
“We immediately launched an investigation through an outside law firm based on the information we had and urged Survival International to provide all the facts they had. Unfortunately, despite our repeated requests, they have chosen not to cooperate and we will continue to ask for their help. .
“We encourage anyone with knowledge of any abuse to report it to us or Congolese law enforcement authorities, which will assist investigations and ensure perpetrators of any abuse are brought to justice.”
The charity was established in 2000 to protect African national parks and promote wildlife conservation on the continent and around the world. It manages more than 20 million hectares of protected areas.
Fiore Longo, head of the Survival International conservation campaign, told the PA news agency that the story was not “surprising” as cases of abuse have been common in the region for years.
She added: “With the arrival of colonial-era reserves, many locals had been evicted. But specifically by the time African Parks took over in 2010, locals said the violence started to be worse than before, as every time they tried to enter the forest ( their homes) to collect medicinal plants, park rangers beat them to hunt and feed their families.”
Longo said she heard from colleagues about cases where women were raped, men had their heads buried in rivers and some were burned with hot wax and whipped.
Responding to claims that Survival International was not cooperating with the African Parks investigation, she said: “They are the employers of the rangers and the managers of the parks and they have the money to conduct their own investigations. We should not be providing them with details. When we asked questions , they have a responsibility to go there and investigate.”
Longo said Survival International had been raising such issues since 2013 and that the alleged abuse suffered by locals was “not a secret”.
