An internal investigation by African Parks uncovered cases of torture, rape and forced displacement of Indigenous people who used to inhabit the land
A national park associated with Prince Harry in the Republic of the Congo has acknowledged that its guards committed human rights abuses against Indigenous peoples who were displaced when the park was constructed.
An internal investigation by African Parks, a South African-based wildlife parks consortium, uncovered cases of torture, rape and forced displacement of Indigenous people who used to inhabit the land now occupied by the Odzala-Kokoua National Park. Prince Harry sits on the board of African Parks.
“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,” read a statement released Thursday by the group and London-based law firm Omnia Strategy.
The initial reports of the abuse, which allegedly took place in 2023, were raised by international rights group Survival International. The allegations were investigated, but the final report of the abuse remains confidential and many details remain unclear.
The rights group said Thursday in a statement that men and women were beaten, tortured or raped “by rangers who are managed and paid for by African Parks.” It did not provide details.
Jonathan Mazower, a spokesperson for Survival International, alleged that African Parks has known since at “least 2013” of cases of abuse when a researcher raised the issue with them. “This is not a particularly isolated case,” he said.
Founded in 2000, African Parks established a hard-nosed reputation by going into seriously degraded places armed with the right to hire and fire from governments, which retained broad authority but respected a clear separation of roles.
The group assumes day-to-day management of countries’ wildlife areas, seeking more efficiency and accountability in the campaign to protect flora and fauna from poaching and habitat depletion. Many partner nations struggle to run parks on their own, challenged by poverty, corruption and conflict.
African Parks said it had improved its safeguarding processes in the past five years both in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park and institutionally. Additional measures it has put in place include appointing an anthropologist to ensure the Baka communities are better supported and working with local human rights NGOs to support the local community. It also said it would carry out an independent human rights impact assessment.
The charity Survival International, which lobbies for the rights of indigenous people, and has raised the issue of the abuse of the Baka people with Prince Harry, criticised African Park’s decision not to make the findings of the investigation public.
Survival said, “African Parks has committed to more reports, more staff and more guidelines – but such approaches have not prevented horrific abuses and violations of international human rights law in the decade or more that African Parks has known of these atrocities, and there is no reason to believe they will do so now”.
When the allegation were first made public last year, Survival said that African Parks had known about the alleged abuse of the Baka people since 2013. At the time, African Parks said it had reached out to Survival to find out more, but that the latter had refused to cooperate.
Survival said it wished to protect its sources in the local community for fear of retaliation. African Parks, which is headquartered in Johannesburg, is arguably one of Africa’s largest conservation charities. It manages 23 protected areas in 13 African countries, and is backed by powerful patrons.
On its website, African Parks lists a number of high-profile donors including the European Union, Rob Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune, and Howard Buffett, son of Warren Buffet.
Despite commissioning an independent review into the actions of its rangers in Congo-Brazzaville, African Parks has not made the findings of the review public.
Instead, it has published a statement acknowledging that human rights abuses occurred in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, which it manages. It has excluded details of the abuse. The review, carried out by Omnia Strategy LLP, a London-based law firm, was handed directly to African Parks.
In a statement, Omnia said it has been carrying out an independent investigation into the alleged abuse in Odzala-Kokoua since December 2023. Its statement did not include its findings and recommendations, which it said had been sent directly to African Parks.
