Diana charity in prostitute claims
A LANDMINE charity supported by Princess Diana and Prince Harry was last night facing accusations its staff in Africa had been using prostitutes habitually.
Mines Advisory Group (Mag) admitted it had failed to ‘sufficiently’ investigate allegations that some staff working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were regularly paying women for sex.
Princess Diana, who famously walked through a minefield in Angola to highlight the dangers of landmines, worked with the charity in the months before her death in 1997.
Her work is being continued by her son Prince Harry.
The allegations against the charity were raised by an anonymous whistleblower. He was reported in a Sunday newspaper to have made allegations against several individuals but commented: ‘I was always surprised more wasn’t done to stop this behaviour.’
In a statement, Mag said: ‘In relation to generic allegations of habitual use of prostitutes by Mag staff in DRC it would seem these were not sufficiently followed up at the time as they should have been, and we are very sorry about this.’
A spokesman added that the charity’s rules and procedures had since been tightened up.
Other charities revealed new figures for sexual abuse and harassment ahead of reports they are preparing to submit to International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt tomorrow.
The claims include 20 incidents of sexual harassment and two involving safeguarding at Action Aid, while Water Aid said it had dismissed four staff members for sexually harassing colleagues.
Earlier, the Red Cross admitted 21 staff members had been either sacked or had quit over sexual misconduct allegations.