13th African Games: For the umpteenth time, blackout envelopes Ghana as footballers play in darkness

Within three days, power outage has embarrassingly occurred four times in Ghana, venue of the ongoing 13th African Games.

Blueprint reports that the blackout has now become a reoccurring happening even before the official kick-off of the competition.

The first occured three days ago when Nigeria’s Flying Eagles played Uganda in their first group match of the ongoing sporting events.

Just before Kick-off of the opening ceremony on Friday March 8, 2024, power supply tripped off at the Games Village, Blueprint had reported.

The Games village (inside University of Ghana) is where majority of contingents – comprising of athletes and officials from over 50 countries are camped.

It was also where the University of Ghana’s sports complex which hosted the official opening ceremony of the competition is located at an area in Accra known as Legon.

As if the blackout situation wasn’t enough, lights also went off twice in Ghana’s opening game of the women’s football event against Ethiopia at the Cape Coast Stadium.

Shamefully, the spectators were forced to put on their phone lights to be able to stay calm.

The first power outage occurred in the 36th minute of the match.

After a delay of nearly 20 minutes, power was restored, only for it to go off again just before halftime.

Ghana’s Black Princesses later emerged 1-0 victorious over Ethiopia at the end of the match on Saturday.

Ghana is scheduled to face Tanzania next before concluding their group stage matches against Uganda.

The incidents of power outages during the game have prompted authorities to investigate the cause.

Given that the game was televised, the interruptions cast a negative light on the country and its infrastructure.

The games are expected to end on March 23.