The 13th African Games, also known as Accra 2023, were hosted by

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

from 8–23 March 2024. Despite having

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

as the main host city, the games were held in two sub-host cities:

Kumasi Kumasi is a city and the capital of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Ashanti Region of Ghana. It is the second largest city in the country, with a population of 443,981 as of the 2021 census. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region ...

and

Cape Coast Cape Coast is a city and the capital of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly, Cape Coast Metropolitan District and the Central Region (Ghana), Central Region of Ghana, Ghana. It is located about from Sekondi-Takoradi and approximately from Ac ...

. The games were initially planned to be held in August 2023, however a failure to complete facilities on time and arguments over marketing revenue resulted in the games being delayed to March 2024.

Bids

(selected) *

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Ouagadougou Ouagadougou or Wagadugu (, , , ) is the capital city of Burkina Faso, and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the List of cities in Burkina Faso#Largest cities, country's largest city, wi ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

Ghana won the rights to host the event in October 2018. In November 2021, Ghana signed an agreement with the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

to host the event.

Venues

Plans to build a new stadium for the event were cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The new Borteyman Sports Complex located in Borteyman,

is intended to be used for indoor sports.

Marketing

The

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

, the logo and the website of the event were unveiled in December 2021. The mascot, known as' (come on), is an anthropomorphic eagle wearing the Ghanaian Flag.

Participating nations

From the 54 members of the ANOCA. 53 sent

delegation Delegation is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person.Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole, D., Woods, P., Simon, A., & McBarron, E. (2017). ''Management'' (6th ed., pp. 282–286). Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons Australia. ...

s to compete in the event, the only exception was

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

. Also noteworthy was the presence of a delegation from the

African Judo Union The African Judo Union (AJU) is the governing body of judo in Africa. It is one of the five continental confederations making up the International Judo Federation (IJF). AJU was formed on 28 November 1961 in Dakar (Senegal). AJU has headquarters ...

. This happened because the National Sports Federation in

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

was suspended and the country's athletes competed as neutrals in the sport. However, their 3 medals are added to the Angolan delegation in the final table.

Sports

Squash was expected to feature at the 13th African Games. But, when the final list of events, they were cut from the games program. In February 2022, it was announced that cricket and arm wrestling will make its debut in the 2023 edition of the games.

Rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

(sevens) is also set to make its debut. A total of 23 sports games have been confirmed for the continental event. Demonstration sports:

Calendar

The schedule for the Games was as follows.

Medal table

Source:

2023 African Para Games

In January 2022, president of the

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; ) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nin ...

Andrew Parsons visited Ghana in support of the 2023 African Para Games which were also to be held in Ghana.

Demonstration Sports

MMA

For the first time in the history of the games,

Mixed Martial Arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

(MMA) was introduced as a demonstration sport in the

African Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...

. The event was conducted by Global Association Of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA). MMA athletes from all over the continent came to participate. Over a span of 2 days (11 and 12 March 2024) nearly 50 fights were conducted to finally crown the African Games Champions in their respective weight classes. The 2023 African Games MMA tournament included athletes from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sudan, and Togo. The final results of the 2023 African Games MMA tournament were announced by GAMMA on their website.

References

External links

Official website

{{Events at the 2023 African Games African Games 2024 in Ghana

Multi-sport events in Ghana Sports competitions in Accra 21st century in Accra