What did Princess Diana do in Angola?

Princess Diana visited Angola in 1997, during a period of peace from a civil war that had been raging on for 20 years. While it was peace time, the conflict continued the following year and would do so for another four.

The war left the country with more than 15 million landmines scattered near towns and villages – with devastating consequences. During the time of Princess Diana’s visit, one in every 330 people living in Angola had lost a limb.

Her influence has been said to help launch the Ottawa Process, set up by supportive countries, like Canada, Belgium and Norway.

However, as incredible as it was, her actions also ruffled feathers. Earl Howe, junior defence minister at the time, described the royal as “ill-informed” on the issue and called her a “loose cannon”.

When asked about the upset she caused, she said she was “only trying to highlight a problem” worldwide.

Princess Diana added: “I’m not a political figure, nor do I want to be one. I come with my heart and I want to bring awareness to people in distress, whether it is in Angola or any part of the world. The fact is I am a humanitarian figure, always have been and always will be.”

But it didn’t stop her, she delivered a powerful speech at the Royal Geographical Institute in London that June. Later, in August, Princess Diana travelled to Bosnia to see work being done to remove the landmines and meet victims of the cicil war in the country from the 1990s. This was only weeks before her death.

Princess Diana’s speech

In the months before her tragic death, Diana’s main focus was campaigning for the deactivation and banning of anti-personnel landmines, which the princess saw the first-hand consequences.

She was not allowed to speak in Parliament, which is why a conference was set up instead.

Diana called the mine a “stealthy killer”, adding “long after conflict is ended, its innocent victims die or are wounded singly, in countries of which we hear little. Their lonely fate is never reported”.

The mum-of-two continued: “I am not a political figure. As I said at the time, and I’d like to re-iterate now, my interests are humanitarian. That is why I felt drawn to this human tragedy. This is why I wanted to play down my part in working towards a world-wide ban on these weapons.

“During my days in Angola, I saw at first hand three aspects of this scourge. In the hospitals of Luanda, the capital, and Huambo, scene of bitter fighting not long ago, I visited some of the mine victims who had survived, and saw their injuries.”

“Even if the world decided tomorrow to ban these weapons, this terrible legacy of mines already in the earth would continue to plague the poor nations of the Globe,” The Princess of Wales said. ‘”The evil that men do, lives after them”‘

“And so, it seems to me, there rests a certain obligation upon the rest of us.”

Read her full speech

Why did Princess Diana walk through landmines?

The walk through the landmines was not only a symbolic act, but to raise awareness and challenge governments to stop their use.

Her brave act drummed up support to ban them, and placed pressure for demining efforts to remove the catastrophic weapons that were hidden in plain sight.

Princess Diana said in her own words one of the reasons she decided to walk through landmines in Angola.

She said: “One of my objectives in visiting Angola was to forward the cause of those, like the Red Cross, striving in the name of humanity to secure an international ban on these weapons. Since them, we are glad to see, some real progress has been made.”

Prince Harry follows in her footsteps

The Duke of Sussex followed in his mother’s footsteps to raise awareness for The Halo Trust’s work to clear landmines, almost 30 years after she embarked on the mission herself.

The 40-year-old met the Angolan President Joao Lourenco this week at the beginning of his trip. He also met survivor Sandra Tigica, who met his mother as a teenager.

It comes after a visit in 2019 where he said the problem with landmines ‘would likely be solved’ if his mother was still alive.

Harry also said he has been keeping Princess Diana’s mother’s legacy alive by talking to his son Prince Archie about landmines and her trip to Angola.

At the beginning of the year, he spoke to CTV, a Canadian TV channel ahead of the Invictus Games.

He explained: “Archie was asking about landmines so I was talking about how some of these guys were blown up.”

“I think IEDs [Improvised explosive devices] are probably a little much at this point but I found myself talking to him about mines, he’s five years old,” he then said.