All the Details on Prince Harry's Surprise Trip to Mozambique

Prince Harry has returned to Africa, a continent close to his heart, this time for a trip to Mozambique. Find out more about his visit.

By Corinne Heller Aug 18, 2022 8:35 PMTags
Watch: Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Set to Return to U.K. Very Soon

Prince Harry is back on a continent close to his heart.

The Duke of Sussex recently made a surprise trip to Mozambique in Africa to highlight wildlife conservation in the country, his spokesperson has confirmed.

The rep told NBC News on Aug. 18, "Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, is welcoming and co-hosting a group of U.S. officials, conservationists, and philanthropists as they tour protected wildlife and nature areas in Mozambique in his capacity as President of African Parks, a non-profit conservation group that manages national parks across the continent."

Harry has been working with African Parks since 2016 and became the NGO's president the following year, according to the group's website. The duke has been visiting the African continent for more than 20 years—for both holidays and conservation work—in following the footsteps of his late mother, Princess Diana, who was known for her international philanthropy.

Mozambique is the third country outside of the United States that Harry has visited since he and Meghan moved to California in spring 2020, a few months after they announced they were stepping down as senior royals.

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They have since returned to his native United Kingdom together a couple of times, most recently with their kids, Archie Harrison, 3, and 14-month-old daughter Lilibet "Lili" Diana—in June for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. The couple also traveled to the Netherlands in April for the Invictus Games.

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Earlier this week, it was announced that Harry and Meghan will return to the United Kingdom in September to attend the One Young World 2022 Manchester Summit. The two will also travel to Germany for the Invictus Games Düsseldorf 2023 One Year to Go event.

Harry has traveled to Mozambique before. In 2010, he visited a cleared minefield and met with landmine victims as well as de-miners from the HALO Trust, a British charity dedicated to removal of landmines. Diana had also supported the group and famously toured a de-mining field during a visit to Angola eight months before her 1997 death. In 2013, the duke was made a patron of the HALO Trust and visited the minefields in Angola himself.

This past July, the Sussexes visited the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the duke delivered a keynote address in honor of Nelson Mandela International Day and spoke about his connection to Africa.

"Since I first visited Africa at 13 years old, I've always found hope on the continent," Harry said. "In fact, for most of my life, it has been my lifeline, a place where I have found peace and healing time and time again. It's where I've felt closest to my mother and sought solace after she died, and where I knew I had found a soulmate in my wife. And it's why so much of my work is based there."

During their early dating days, Harry and Meghan bonded further while on a 2017 trip to the African country of Botswana.

In fall 2019, a few months before the couple announced their royal exit, the two traveled to South Africa with Archie, then four months old, for what marked on their first official overseas family trip and the then-infant's first royal tour. At the time, Harry also made solo visits to Botswana, Malawi and Angola, where he visited another de-mining field that brought to mind his mother's famous 1997 visit.

While in the South African city of Johannesburg, Harry spoke about how visiting Africa over the years had helped him come to terms with the death of his mother. "Ever since I came to this continent as a young boy, trying to cope with something I can never possibly describe, Africa has held me in an embrace that I will never forget," Harry said in a speech, per Reuters, "and I feel incredibly fortunate for that."

The duke continued, "I always feel, wherever I am on this continent, that the community around me provides a life that is enriching, and is rooted in the simplest things—connection, connections with others and the natural environment. And as I raise my own son, I want to make sure that what I've learned here—the value of the natural world, the value of community and friendship—is something that I can pass on to him."

(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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