It was a moment of shock amidst uncertainty on Friday March 8, 2023, day the 13th African Games kick-off witnessed a sudden blackout in Accra Ghana as athletes, and other guests from over 50 countries were stranded at various points of the Games Village in the capital.
The power outage which occured around 4pm on Friday occurred some two hours to the official event Kick-off.
The development described as a national disgrace left entire contingent rushing out of their apartments due to dark shades which enveloped the entire area.
“I lost sight of everything in the room, what!,” an athlete from Morocco who rushed out of her room located at one of the buildings within the Games village shouted.
“I actually thought that something was seriously wrong, but when I found the way out of the door, I discovered that it was power outage. It was so scary.
The ugly situation also made most of the persons leave their apartments to stay only outside.
“I was just preparing to attend the opening ceremony this evening (Friday) and the whole place appeared in a blackout,” another athlete from South Africa who didn’t mention his name roared.
One of the workers for the Games, who simply identified himself as Traore, attached to Ghana’s Ambulance Service (GAS) said the situation was unusual “because since competition leading to the opening ceremony started, there has been statedy power supply. As we use to know, whenever there’s an outage, some technical issues might have occured, but it doesn’t take time before power will be restored.
While the blackout lasted, contingents from various countries moved in trickles to the opening ceremony venue located within the University of Ghana premises, also known as the Games Village at Legon.
As at the time of writing this report, neither the Games organisers, nor the country’s authorities offered any explanation as to what led to the incident.
The Games is scheduled to end on March 23, 2024.
