Royal Watch News

Prince Harry becomes patron of landmine charity

Mar 8, 2013, 12:02 GMT

Prince Harry

Britain's Prince Harry has become a patron of the landmine-clearance charity made famous by his late mother.

The 28-year-old royal will will lend his support to the Halo Trust - which has cleared 1.4 million mines since it was set up in 1998 - as the organisation celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Guy Willoughby, Halo's chief executive officer, said: 'Many people don't realise that wars might be over but people are still being killed and maimed by landmines every day - there were 4,000 victims of landmines in 2011.

'Prince Harry's invaluable support will help us raise awareness of this important issue so we can raise funds to recruit and train more de-miners to get more landmines out of the ground more quickly.'

Diana highlighted the work of the Halo Trust less than eight months before her tragic death, when she was pictured wearing a face mask and protective clothing during a visit to a minefield clearance in Angola in January 1997.

But her subsequent calls for a worldwide ban on landmines sparked an international row over the impartiality of the royal family.

But Diana claimed she was not a political figure and just wanted to highlight the scale of the humanitarian disaster.

Harry first followed the example set by mother when he visited Mozambique in 2010 to learn about Halo's work.

Since then he has been looking for a way to support the charity more formally ever since.