A charity project with Prince Harry behind it has relocated elephants in Malawi, which have rampaged an African village.

The elephants were moved into the African country as part of a joint project by two charities, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and African Parks, 

where the Duke of Sussex is on the board of directors and is a former president. The animals as a group of 263 were relocated into a national park, but escaped last June.

The elephants trampled through an African village, where a 31-year-old mother died and her young daughter was injured. 

Speaking in an interview, the father of Masiya Banda spoke about the loss of his daughter and granddaughter.

Father of Masiya Banda, Ngoma Banda told the Daily Mail: “This dangerous animal, with lots of others, was brought here and killed my daughter. 

We did not see elephants until charities put them next to our homes. How could the grandson of your Queen Elizabeth have done this to us?”

Whilst Prince Harry was not directly involved in the 2022 relocation to the park, he has supported previous projects. In July 2016, Prince Harry spent three weeks working with African Parks on a pioneering elephant relocation programme, which helped to move 500 of the animals 220 miles to a new wildlife reserve. At the time, it was considered “one of the largest elephant translocations in human history”.

In a promotional film released at the time, Harry said: “In a weird way, the elephants know we are here to help. They are so calm and relaxed. They need to be moved to another place so this is the least invasive way to do it. There is zero stress on them.”

However, the project’s relocation which has been labelled as ‘vital’ by the charity, has been labelled as “devastating” for some people in Malawi. Since the elephants were moved in 2022, nine people have been left dead by them. A report by Warm Heart, a Zambia-based campaign group, has highlighted the impact which includes that over the last two years, 41 children have been orphaned as a result of elephant attacks near the park’s borders, both inside Malawi and neighbouring Zambia, and 4,000 people have been left injured.

Warm Heart founder and conservationist Mike Labuschagne told the Daily Mail: “They brought 263 elephants and just dumped them in the park and the elephants started attacking people’s crops and killing them. If an African charity released 263 hyenas in the suburbs of London and 18 months later nine people had been killed by those hyenas, what do you think the reaction would be?”

When contacted about the report by the Daily Mail, IFAW denied the elephants were dumped in the park. It said: “It was determined by scientific reasoning. Our role was to support with financial means and expertise from a conservation perspective.” African Parks, who were also contacted, said: “Contrary to claims of rushing the relocation, plans to move the elephants commenced over three years ago and were delayed by Covid-19.”

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Source: USA Today