Cairo awarded hosting rights for 2022 African Youth Games

Cairo has been awarded the 2022 African Youth Games, making Egypt the third country to be awarded the event following relocations from Lesotho and Ethiopia.

In a press release from the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), it was confirmed that its Executive Committee members had approved the move of the Youth Games to Egypt.

It also confirmed the 2023 African Beach Games would be scheduled to take place in Hammamet in Tunisia.

ANOCA did not reveal the reason for the Youth Games being moved to Cairo.

Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa was awarded the Games in October 2020, moving from Lesotho’s capital Maseru, although a reason was not disclosed then either.

One month after Ethiopia was awarded the event, the Tigray War started in the country, a civil war in the northern region of the same name.

The Tigray War has been ongoing since November 3 2020 ©Getty Images

ANOCA President Mustapha Berraf held a video conference on December 30 from Tunis in Tunisia to discuss the awarding of the two competitions.

Tunisian Olympic Committee President Mehrez Boussayene and Egyptian Olympic Committee secretary general Sharif Elerian confirmed hosting duties on behalf of their National Olympic Committees.

The African Youth Games are expected to welcome 4,500 participants, while the Beach Games are set to bring in around 1,200 athletes.

Algeria held the last African Youth Games in 2018 and Cape Verde held the inaugural African Beach Games in 2019.

This article was published on insidethegames.biz.