The Canadian government has announced it will send a small delegation of athletes and artists to the Francophonie Games, which begin next week in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after expressing doubts about security issues.

“As a founding country and an active and committed member of La Francophonie, Canada will be sending a Canadian delegation to the La Francophonie Games in Kinshasa. I wish Team Canada the best of luck and would like to thank the Democratic Republic of the Congo for their significant efforts in preparing and hosting this event,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement on Thursday.

The duty reported that Canada was reluctant to give the green light to send its delegation to the July 28-August 6 event due to security concerns in Kinshasa. For its part, the Quebec government has refrained from sending a delegation to Kinshasa, as have other countries, such as the Wallonia-Brussels Confederation (FWB) in Belgium and the athletics and cycling federations in France.

Ottawa will only send about fifteen athletes competing in just two sports, judo and wrestling, for both women and men. Completing the Canadian delegation are fifteen artists in the fields of singing, storytelling, painting, creative dance and hip-hop dance.

The Canadian delegation includes members of the Canadian teams Canada-Quebec and Canada-New Brunswick, as we can read on his website.

The Department of Canadian Heritage announced the details on Thursday morning. On Wednesday evening, this ministry confirmed this Duty Unable to confirm that a delegation was being sent to Kinshasa, he instead referred the question to Global Affairs Canada, which did not respond.

The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo recently announced that it had taken measures to combat urban banditry and curb kidnapping cases. In 2017, 3,500 participants were welcomed in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, for the last edition of the Francophonie Games. The IXs^Are The Games of Francophonie are about justice, solidarity, excellence, responsibility and diversity.

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