Prince Harry to retrace mum Diana’s steps during first family trip to Africa

The itinerary for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s African tour has been released, with the couple making a surprising scheduling decision.

Prince Harry will retrace his mother’s steps when he tours Africa with his family later this month, visiting the place where Princess Diana famously stepped onto an active minefield.

A schedule released by the royals on Friday shows the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with their four-month-old son Archie, will spend 10 days in Africa visiting communities in South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Malawi.

The couple will spend most of the tour apart on separate engagements, with Meghan staying in South Africa while Harry tours other countries.

The itinerary reveals “a particularly significant and poignant” part of the journey will be when Prince Harry travels to Huambo in central Angola to see first-hand the legacy of his mother’s campaign against landmines.

“The Duke is especially proud to continue the legacy left by his mother with her work in Angola as he joins Halo Trust again in an effort to rid the world of landmines,” a post on the royal’s Instagram read.

In 1997, just a few months before her death, Princess Diana visited Huambo to push for an international ban on landmines.

Thousands of explosives had been left littered across fields and villages there, following the country’s 27-year civil war, and Diana wanted to draw attention to the resulting humanitarian crisis.

"The mine is a stealthy killer. 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," she said at the time.

During her visit, Diana toured a de-mining site where workers from UK charity HALO Trust were helping to clear explosives. There, she was famously photographed wearing a protective vest and destroying a mine.

Then she toured a local orthopaedic centre, where young amputees who had lost limbs as a result of stepping on landmines were being treated.

Princess Diana with a Halo Trust landmine worker, Paul Heslop, in Angola. Picture: Darryn Lyons/ Mirrorpix

Princess Diana talking to amputee landmine victims near Luanda during her visit to Angola. Picture: Supplied

Princess Diana with 13-year-old amputee Sandra Tigica, who lost her leg in 1994 as result of stepping on a landmine. Picture: Supplied

Now, more than 20 years on, Prince Harry will visit the same minefield — now a busy street with schools, shops and houses — and treatment centre where his mother made her mark.

“We look forward to showing the Duke of Sussex the impact that landmine clearance has had on the people of Angola,” the CEO of HALO, Major General James Cowan, said.

“HALO has destroyed almost 100,000 landmines in the country since 1994, but much remains to be done. The Duke’s support has given a much-needed voice to mine action around the world."

WHAT WILL MEGHAN DO?

The Duchess of Sussex will stay in South Africa while Harry tours Botswana, Angola and Malawi.

The couple will spend a few days in Cape Town together, where they’ll meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped end apartheid.

Then when Harry travels onwards to Botswana, Meghan will spend the rest of the tour meeting with female entrepreneurs, academics and community leaders.

The pair will then be reunited in Johannesburg, where they’ll meet South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his wife Dr Tshepo Motsepe, as well as former president Nelson Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend most of their Africa tour apart. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Britain's Prince Harry says he flies commercial where possible. Picture: AAP/Darren England

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The release of the tour’s schedule comes just days after Prince Harry launched Travalyst, his new global initiative aimed at promoting eco-friendly travel. That means all eyes will be on the Duke and Duchess’s travel choices as they jaunt across the continent.

The royal couple were last month criticised for their frequent use of gas-guzzling private jets.

But Prince Harry said in Amsterdam on Tuesday that private flights were occasionally necessary to keep his family safe.

“Occasionally there needs to be an opportunity based on a unique circumstance to ensure my family are safe. It’s genuinely as simple as that,” he said.

“What it is about is balance … I have always offset my CO2”.

The couple are expected to fly commercial to South Africa, according to The Sun.