Prince Harry has ended his formal ties with African Parks, a conservation charity that has come under scrutiny over allegations of human rights abuses involving its rangers.
The Duke of Sussex is stepping back from the organisation after it confirmed a “governing refresh” in a statement issued last week.
Harry, who was reported last Wednesday to be returning to the UK with Meghan and their children, has served as a trustee of African Parks for the past ten years.
The charity has faced mounting criticism following a Daily Mail investigation that raised allegations of intimidation and abuse against indigenous communities.
The development comes after it was announced last week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are set to move back to Britain after six years in the United States, as their children prepare to begin at new schools in the UK.
A source close to the Sussexes said Harry and Meghan’s children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, have been enrolled in British schools and are expected to start classes in September.
The family are believed to be planning to live in a private, non-royal home outside London, with speculation pointing to a possible move to the Cotswolds.
Since relocating to the US, the Sussexes have been based in Montecito, California, while also maintaining a holiday property in Portugal.
The King was said to have been taken aback by learning of the homecoming plans only days before it was made public – having not been told when Harry and Meghan met him on their visit to Britain last month.
Prince Harry (pictured in 2019) was African Parks’ president for six years before joining the board of directors in 2023 – but he is now stepping back from the charity
Prince Harry is seen in Malawi’s Liwonde National Park in 2019, in his African Parks work
Now, Prince Harry will no longer be on the board of directors of the African Parks charity that he has been backing for the past decade, having previously served as president for six years.
In a statement, African Parks expressed ‘deep gratitude to Prince Harry’, saying he would ‘conclude his tenure following a ten-year commitment to the organisation’.
African Parks said: ‘Over the years, The Duke has brought global attention to the urgent need for biodiversity protection for the benefit of people and wildlife, and has contributed greatly to promoting philanthropy for the cause of conservation in Africa.’
It said he remained ‘deeply committed’ and a ‘strong supporter’ of African Parks’ work.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday in 2024 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 group 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.
African Parks then launched an independent review and the charity later 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, then went directly to African Parks. It did not publicly share the results.
The charity said in a statement in May last year: ‘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.’
A spokesman for Prince Harry today said: ‘The Duke is proud of his ten years with African Parks and fully supports the ongoing strengthening of its Board.
‘His commitment to conservation in Africa continues, and he remains a supporter of African Parks’ mission.’
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The Duke of Sussex worked in Malawi with African Parks as part of an initiative involving moving 500 elephants over 200 miles across the country in 2016
It emerged last week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to return to the UK before school term starts in September
The Charity Commission recommends that a trustee’s tenure should reach a maximum of nine years, ‘except in exceptional circumstances’.
In 2016, Harry helped move hundreds of African elephants in Malawi to a safer home as part of a project organised by African Parks, describing the experience as ‘amazing’.
The charity said in 2025 that it had improved its safeguarding processes both in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park and institutionally.
Caroline Pearce, director of human rights charity Survival International, said after the Duke’s departure from African Parks: ‘It’s outrageous that for ten years Prince Harry has served African Parks while the organisation has been responsible for abuse and violence against Indigenous people.
‘His departure doesn’t undo that record. African Parks itself must now be held accountable and must abandon this model of fortress conservation for good.’
The accusations regarding African Parks were without Prince Harry’s knowledge and he only became aware of the claims when they were reported.
On their imminent return to the UK, the Sussexes’ status will remain the same, with the couple not being offered a ‘half in, half out’ option when it comes to their roles.
Harry and ex-Suits star Meghan, who were married at St George’s Chapel in Windsor in May 2018, were once dubbed part of the ‘Fab Four’ with the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – now the Prince and Princess of Wales.
But in March 2019, Buckingham Palace announced Harry and Meghan would set up their own household, breaking from the joint operation they had with William and Kate amid reports of rifts between the two couples.
In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced they intended to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family, become financially independent and split their time between the UK and North America.
By March that year they had set up a permanent home in California, officially stepped down as senior royals and stopped using their HRH titles.
The fallout worsened after accusations Harry publicly levelled at members of the Royal Family, including his brother, in his memoir Spare and his Netflix documentary.
In his autobiography Spare, released just months after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Harry accused William of physically attacking him and pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over Meghan.
He also alleged it was William and Kate who encouraged him to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in 2005 and ‘howled’ with laughter when they saw it.
In their Netflix series two months after the Queen’s death, the Sussexes said Kensington Palace lied to protect William when it issued a statement denying a story he had bullied Harry out of the Royal Family.
Harry also wrote of how Charles pleaded with his sons during a tense meeting at Windsor just after the funeral of Prince Philip, saying: ‘Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.’
Meghan was able to travel to the UK in July with Archie and Lilibet to join Harry when he came to the end of a week-long series of events promoting next year’s Invictus Games.
During the visit, the Duke and Duchess took their children to see the King for the first time in four years at his Highgrove home, but are not thought to have raised the prospect of a return to the UK at that meeting.
Harry’s other charity initiatives included the organisation Sentebale, before a fallout with its board chairman Sophie Chandauka.
She accused the Duke of ‘operational disruption and reputational harm’ to the charity he co-founded in 2006 to support young people living with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana – saying he conducted an ‘adverse media campaign’.
A court action was filed in the High Court against Harry and another former trustee, Mark Dyer, in March this year.
Harry has rejected the allegations as ‘offensive and damaging’. He previously gave Sentebale an extra £1.2million donation from profits of his memoir Spare.
But a bitter public power struggle ensued for control over the charity after a dispute with Ms Chandauka which led to Prince Harry and his fellow founder Prince Seeiso along with a group of trustees resigning from the charity in March 2025.
