Commonwealth Games 2018, Gold Coast: Five Cameroon athletes reported missing, search on

GOLD COAST: Five Cameroon athletes competing at the 21st Commonwealth Games in Australia's Gold Coast have gone missing, reports said on Wednesday.

Among those missing are – weightlifters Olivier Matam, Aka Angeline Filji and Mikoumba Petit  David, and boxers Ndzie Tchoyi and Simplice Fotsala.

Boxers Ndzie Tchoyi and Simplice Fotsala had been due to compete on Tuesday but could not be found, Cameroon team manager Victor Agbor Nso said.

Out of the five, four have competed and lost and one failed to turn up for the competition on April 10.

Nso said that weightlifters - Aka Angeline Filji and Mikoumba Petit David - had earlier gone missing from the Games at the Gold Coast, but did not specify when.

Meanwhile, a search has been initiated by the Australian Police for the missing Cameron athletes and the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education had been duly posted about the developments. 

"We have officially informed our hierarchy back home: the Ministry of Sports and the president of the National Olympic Committee of Cameroon," Nso was quoted as telling Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV.

"We have also laid a formal complaint to the Australian Police," he added

It is not the first time Cameroonian athletes have disappeared at a major sporting event. 

In 2012, five male boxers, a female footballer and a male swimmer absconded from the London Olympic village.