Eight Cameroonian athletes missing from Commonwealth Games village in Australia

Eight Cameroonian athletes, six men and two women, have disappeared from the village they were staying in Gold Coast, Australia, during the Commonwealth Games. This absence is being treated as "desertion" by the team officials.

The missing athletes are three weightlifters and five boxers. According to a statement from the Cameroonian delegation, they left their accommodations in three batches. The first batch, consisting of three athletes, left on the night of April 8. Two more left the following day and three others left on Tuesday.

Their team has encouraged them to return to the village and join their teammates, but they have already informed both the Australian police and the sports authorities in their country.

Victor Agbor Nso, the mission chief, added that two other weightlifters and the Cameroonian basketball players have already returned to their country, while representatives from athletics, badminton, and wrestling are still to compete in Gold Coast. The Cameroonian delegation initially consisted of forty athletes.

The president of the Games organizing committee, Peter Beattie, has asked the runaway athletes to adhere to the country's visa entry deadlines. In the meantime, he stated that they are free to move around the country.

During the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, 26 participants, including 14 from Sierra Leone, sought political asylum in Australia.