Ugandan athletes vanish after Commonwealth Games.
It was in Glasgow that the most recent edition of the Commonwealth Games was held, an event that already saw the curious news story of Aziz Abdul, a competitor in the super-heavyweight boxing category who also happened to be the grandson of the murderous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Despite talk of wanting to win the gold medal, Abdul fell short before even winning bronze, as he was disqualified in the quarter-finals for headbutting opponent Damar Thomas (the eventual gold medal winner).
Following his elimination from the tournament, Abdul went on a rant to the referee of his bout with Thomas, refused to speak to a journalist afterwards, and put his loss down to racism and biased officiating.
As bizarre as that whole situation is, it happens to not be the only curious incident regarding a Ugandan participant to come out of the Commonwealth Games.
Following the conclusion of the games on Sunday, Police Scotland stated that they have received various reports of a number of the athletes being “unaccounted for”, four of whom happen to be from the Ugandan boxing team.
Nuhu Batte, Angel Katsushabe, Ibrahim Kemis, and Emily Nakalema all failed to show up on their return flight home once the games had ended. According to NBS Sports, one of the four missing pugilists informed them that their intention was to seek asylum in Scotland.
Their reasoning was reportedly that they wanted to continue their careers in a country that they thought possessed superior training facilities and opportunities than their homeland.
This phenomenon is not a new one, with several previous editions of the Commonwealth Games seeing dozens of its athletes going missing.
While some of these sportsmen would go on to claim asylum, the whereabouts of others remain unknown to this day.
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