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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Lily Waddell

Prince Harry and Meghan ‘speechless’ and ‘in pain’ over Afghanistan

Meghan and Harry

(Picture: PA Archive)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have broken their silence on Afghanistan saying “the world is exceptionally fragile right now”.

The Duke of Sussex, 36, worked two frontline tours of Afghanistan during his 10 years in the British Army.

The couple, writing on their website Archewell, said “we all feel the many layers of pain due to the situation in Afghanistan, we are left speechless,” as they encouraged people to donate to organisations in need.

Their statement also addressed the coronavirus pandemic and the humanitarian disaster in Haiti following an earthquake and now tropical storm.

“We are left heartbroken,” they said.

“And as we all witness the continuing global health crisis, exacerbated by new variants and constant misinformation, we are left scared.

“When any person or community suffers, a piece of each of us does so with them, whether we realize it or not. And though we are not meant to live in a state of suffering, we, as a people, are being conditioned to accept it. It’s easy to find ourselves feeling powerless, but we can put our values into action — together.

“To start, we encourage you to join us in supporting a number of organizations doing critical work. We also urge those in positions of global influence to rapidly advance the humanitarian dialogues that are expected to take place this fall at multilateral gatherings such as the U.N. General Assembly and the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

“As an international community, it is the decisions we make now — to alleviate suffering among those we know and those we may never meet — that will prove our humanity.”

It comes as the Duke of Sussex urged veterans to “offer support for one another” in the wake of the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan in a statement released via the Invictus Games Foundation.

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