Sophie tackles jungle, turns seamstress and bags gorilla toy on DR Congo visit

The Duchess of Edinburgh tested her jungle survival skills, helped weave baskets and left with a cuddly gorilla toy during her visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On Monday, after landing in Beni in conflict-hit eastern DRC, Sophie joined a Brazilian jungle warfare training team, based there as part of the UN peacekeeping force Monusco, for a brief crash course.

Handed a compass to test her bearings, she joked: “I’m assuming this is the correct path — or otherwise I’m going to find myself in a tree.”

She watched as the team demonstrated landmine detection and first aid for ambush casualties, including applying a tourniquet, before climbing into a bulletproof patrol vehicle used to reach remote villages as part of peacekeeping operations.

The next day, Sophie turned seamstress at a safe space run by the Danish Refugee Council, which overlooks Beni.

The programme, funded in part by the UK, helps women displaced by conflict earn a living through crafts and hairdressing.

Perched at a Singer sewing machine, she laughed at her own stitches, let one of the women who use the facility demonstrate the best technique, then tried basket weaving and praised the local hairdressing skills on display.

The Duchess also knelt to greet babies cradled by their mothers, lent a hand cutting cloth and smiled as she was shown tiny socks the women had sewn.

Her trip also included a visit to a cafe to hear about efforts to foster peace in Virunga National Park, much of it under rebel control.

She heard of efforts to create local jobs through eco-tourism, provide renewable energy and support sustainable agriculture to protect the Africa’s oldest national park, which is home to mountain gorillas.

The Duchess beamed as she was showered with gifts — coffee beans, bars of chocolate, a chocolate gorilla and a cuddly gorilla toy.

She thanked the park ranger who gave it to her in French, adding: “How sweet”.

Park director Emmanuel de Merode hailed her visit as “significant”, saying it could “open a window” into a conflict “more should know about”.

But despite the light-hearted moments, Sophie’s visit to the DRC at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office was to shine a light on sexual-related violence in the country.

Speaking at a reception at the British embassy in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday, she said: “The situation is so bad and the scale is so enormous, I was saying to someone earlier on that we could all walk away because it’s just too hard.

“So we have to think of each person, each woman, each child, each boy and each man and we have to bring it back to the individuals every single time because even if we change one life we make a difference.”

She added: “When a woman’s life has been devastated by rape, she has been rejected by her family and her community, she has lost everything, all she wants is opportunity.

“Opportunity to rebuild, to earn some money, to put food on the table and to get her children into school.

“This is not complicated stuff, it just requires will and dedication and, yes of course, finance.”