Whitey Ford
01-30-2024, 02:08 AM
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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."
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."
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."
https://www.newsweek.com/prince-harry-african-parks-charity-rape-torture-investigation-1864679
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."
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."
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."
https://www.newsweek.com/prince-harry-african-parks-charity-rape-torture-investigation-1864679