Four pull out of Africa badminton event over Ebola

Aug 19, 2014

Ebola threats are already hitting Uganda sports with four countries pulling out of the All Africa U-15 badminton tournament.

By Norman Katende

Ebola threats are already hitting Uganda sports with four countries pulling out of the All Africa U-15 badminton tournament.


The competition will be staged in Kampala between August 24-31 at Lugogo.

Information from the continental office says that Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Seychelles citing fear of their players contracting Ebola have pulled out of the event. This is despite the fact that there are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Uganda.

“We received communication from the continental secretariat about the new developments. The situation is beyond us but we believe it is unfair to us as we have not had any Ebola case in the country of recent,” said Simon Mugabi, the chief executive officer of the national badminton association.

However, despite the withdrawals, other countries including Mauritius, Zambia, South Africa, Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe have confirmed that they will field teams in the three-day competition.

“We expect the number to increase. We need at least three countries for the tournament to be recognised as an international badminton event,” said Mugabi

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