South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Andrea Arop Malek
The government is urging fans for the national team, who intend to travel for the Basketball Olympics tournament in France to solicit their own.
This comes after the government said it has failed to get the visas on behalf of the fans and its delegation to the tournament.
Engagements with the French Embassy to solicit visas for government delegation either in Juba, on arrival in Paris or from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, en-route to the games has not materialized, Joseph Geng Akech, the Minister of Youths and Sports told reporters in Juba yesterday.
“We regret to announce that none of these options is possible,” Akech said.
South Sudan is the only African country participating in the Paris Olympic Games this year.
Its national team, the Bright Stars is doing great in the warm up friendlies. On Thursday, it disposed of the national team of Great Britain in a hotly contested friendly.
“This is something we are proud of as people of South Sudan,” he said.
Before that, the Bright Stars beat Portugal in a friendly match and only lost to Argentina.
They will face the USA team today in their last friendly before heading to Paris where they will play their first game on July 28 against Porto Rico.
According to Minister Akech, the South Sudan delegation to the Olympic Games was already made up of a limited number of fans and accompanying technical people from the country’s Olympic committee and the government, due to the economic crisis the country is facing.
“Any individual whose name was on government sponsored list is encouraged to obtain visas in Addis Ababa by 23rd July 2024” and “all travel and visas costs to and from Addis are to be met by such individuals,” Akech said.
“Individuals on government sponsored list with foreign passports that do not need visas to France to report to the Ministry on Monday 22nd July 2024,” he said adding that the South Sudan delegation to the Olympics departs on 25th of July.
