It was the biggest battle fought on African soil since the Second World War: a titanic clash in a civil war that left swathes of Angola covered in landmines and devastated the country’s once thriving wildlife.

Thirty years on, the battlefield of Cuito Cuanavale in southeastern Angola is at the centre of a plan to bring home thousands of “refugee” elephants who fled the fighting and its deadly legacy.

"The elephants might not speak Portuguese or carry passports, but they want to come home," Paula Coelho, Angola's environment minister told The Daily Telegraph in an exclusive interview.

Her plan, which has won backing from the Duke of Sussex, will see Angola plough $60 million (£47 million) of its own money into clearing 153 mine fields around the headwaters of the Okavango River over the next five years.

The initiative is backed by the Halo Trust, the British demining charity, which has promised to match the Angolan investment to clear further minefields.

There are only about 3,300 elephants in Angola today, according to a 2016 study.