Barely two weeks before start of the 2023 Games La Francophonie in Kinshasa, host nation Democratic Republic of Congo may withdraw their participation in the games as it is yet to pay its athletes’ participation fees.
Participation fees for the Games set to get underway on July 28, are said to be up to €380 for each athlete.
Speaking at a briefing on Monday, Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde confirmed that the nation was yet to secure its athlete’s participation but were targeting having at least 300 athletes to take part at the Games.
“The country would like to field as many athletes as possible, but the question of liquidity still poses a problem. The country has not yet paid the participation fee for Congolese athletes” Lukonde said.
Lukonde told reporters that DR Congo’s participation at the games is now in limbo as government is has not yet committed to fulfilling its obligation of paying the athletes’ fees.
“Two weeks before the start of the Francophonie games, the DR Congo could be forced to leave the competition for the lack of fulfillment of certain administrative conditions. The government is working on it but no satisfactory response so far” he said.
Meanwhile, with less than a month before the start of the games, Kinshasa has been racing against time to be ready all infrastructure that are needed to be used for the competition.
