Africa supports participation of Russia at Olympic Games

The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) has taken a resolution to support the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in all international competitions, including the Olympic Games.

ANOCA said the unanimous decision was reached at the end of the 59th Ordinary Session of its Executive Committee, “in view of the exchanges and the recommendations defended by common agreement between all the participants.”

On 28 February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, after Moscow had started the military operation in Ukraine.

Almost a year later, at its session on 25 January, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions.

ANOCA President Mustapha Berraf reiterated this position by affirming that Africa aligns itself with the position of the International Olympic Committee and its President Dr. Thomas Bach.

“It will thus be a question of allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in complete neutrality without any sign of identity in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“ANOCA has given its agreement to reaffirm that politics cannot put pressure on Sport and withdraw from it all its nobility values ​​which revolve around peace, unity and Solidarity.

“The work of Nouakchott takes on a historic stamp in this sense and insists on the lifting of the barriers which must exist between politics and sport,” the organization said in a statement.

It added that Athletes must in no case pay the heavy price of a conflict “whatever it is and wherever it is.”