African athletes go missing

Weightlifters Olivier Matam Matam, Arcangeline Fouodji Sonkbou and Petit Minkoumba, and boxers Christian Ndzie Tsoye, Simplice Fotsala, Arsene Fokou, Ulrich Yombo and Christelle Ndiang are the missing athletes.

No few than 145 athletes overstayed their visas after the millennium Olympics in Sydney.

"All of our athletes have worked extremely hard to represent our country in their chosen sport at this year's Commonwealth Games and we are very proud of them", Ms Kaye says.

In a freaky set of events, five more athletes appear to be missing from Commonwealth Games Village organisers said on Thursday, after eight competitors from Cameroon were suspected of fleeing a day earlier.

Federation Court ruled that five individuals, including Indian Chef de Mission Vikram Singh Sisodia; General Team Manager, Namdev Shirgaonker; Athletics Team Manager, Ravinder Chaudhry; and two athletes, Rakesh Babu and Irfan Kolothum Thodi, breached the no needles policy.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Grevemberg dismissed reports of further disappearances as "speculative", after Australian media reported that a member of the Ghanaian delegation and two from Sierra Leone had also gone missing.

"We encourage people to get a visa, come here and compete, stay a little while after, spend some money in this country, and then go home, and that is our position", Mr Beattie said on ABC Radio.

Games officials have confirmed a Rwandan athlete, two Ugandans and potentially one Ghanaian are also missing in action.

"But I'm doing this for the youth to show them that anything is possible if you believe". "Gold Coast... are missing from their respective rooms in the Games village", the team later said in a statement. Athlete visas for the Commonwealth Games expire on May 15, Grevemberg said.

The 2018 Games are now underway in the Gold Coast in the Australian State of Queensland.

Peter Beattie, chairman of the local organizing committee, said it was not a surprise. "We're organizing a sporting event, if there are breaches of visas, they will deal with it".

The Cameroon team marches into Carrara Stadium for the opening ceremony for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia.