In what appears to be the final phase of their plot to present themselves as the alternative royal family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will embark on a very royal ‘tour’ of Nigeria next week.

At the invitation of the West African country’s top military official, the Chief of Defense Staff, Prince Harry and Meghan are guaranteed the kind of security they expected from British taxpayers.

Harry, you may recall, sought a judicial review of the Home Office’s decision to deprive him, Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, of their automatic right to police surveillance in Britain after they had chosen to give up their royal duties and their fortunes across the Atlantic. King Charles’ youngest son lost the case in February, with the case estimated to have cost him around £1 million, including his own legal costs and those of the Home Office.

 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during their 2019 royal tour of South Africa

Next week, such worries will no longer exist for the wealthy couple as security will be paid for by the government of Nigeria, a country where an estimated 87 million people live below the poverty line.

Harry and Meghan are visiting after the duke began speaking with the Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, in Germany during the Invictus Games Dusseldorf last September.

No doubt the ‘royal tour’ will be good for Brand Sussex and will highlight what the couple could have achieved for the Commonwealth had they stayed with the Windsors. But I do wonder if Harry’s time in Africa would be better spent dealing with a charity fundraising scandal involving allegations of abuse.

African Parks, a conservation charity of which he is director, is facing further allegations of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings and violent abuse.

New allegations of brutality in Zambia by rangers jointly managed by African Parks have emerged following the Mail on Sunday’s front page report in January about armed guards involved in abuse, rape and torture of the Baka tribes in the Republic of Congo.

The charity – which manages parks in 12 African countries, with 1,400 wardens patrolling protected areas almost the size of Britain – claims it saves wildlife by working with local communities. And before the allegations were made, Harry, chairman of the charity for six years until joining its board of directors last year, boasted: ‘The African Parks Model is exactly what conservation should be about – putting people at the heart of the solution. .’

 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle take selfies with fans at the Invictus Games Dusseldorf in Germany last September, where they struck up a conversation with the Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa

But now allegations of brutality have emerged in Zambia’s Bangweulu Wetlands, a nature reserve almost the size of Devon and home to 50,000 indigenous people who have the right to ‘sustainably’ harvest natural resources such as fish, antelope and rabbits .

Fiore Longo, campaign director for Survival International, which fights for the rights of indigenous people, said: “This is yet another case of abuse and violence, allegedly in the name of conservation.”

Her group wrote to Harry last year about “terrible human rights violations” in Congo’s Odzala-Kokoua National Park. Harry’s spokesman said he “immediately escalated” the allegations to the chairman and chief executive of African Parks.

The charity told the Mail on Sunday that none of the research teams had yet visited the park. There is no evidence that Harry had any knowledge of the allegations about what happened in Zambia.

African Parks said: ‘While there have been incidents that we condemn, it would be incorrect to suggest that African Parks is responsible for systemic misconduct in the area.’

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