Lagos, May 11 (EFE).- Prince Henry, youngest son of British King Charles III, and his wife, Meghan Markle, played a game of sitting volleyball this Saturday in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, with Army war veterans. Nigerian wounded in combat.
The match was part of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s three-day private trip to Nigeria, which began this Friday with a visit to a school that receives funding from their charity, the Archewell Foundation, and a meeting at the headquarters of the Nigerian Army.
On Harry’s team was former Nigerian soldier Peacemaker Azuegbulam, who lost one of his legs in a military operation in the northeast of the country, a stronghold of several jihadist groups, and the first African to win a gold medal at the Invictus Games, co-founded by Enrique in 2014.
However, their rivals scored 25 points, ahead of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Azuegbulam’s team with 21 points.
The Invictus Games are a sporting event for war veterans and active but wounded soldiers, and its last edition was held last September in the German city of Düsseldorf.
The director of sports of the Nigerian Army, Air Vice Marshal Abidemi Marquis, announced this Thursday that the visit of Harry and his wife will help veterans to “improve their personal self-esteem to improve their mental health.”
The two are also scheduled to travel to Kaduna state (center), bordering Abuja, to visit the Nigerian Army Referral Hospital, where they will meet with wounded soldiers.
Northeast Nigeria has been the target of attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram since 2009, a violence that worsened in 2016 with the appearance of its splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Both groups seek to impose an Islamic State in Nigeria, a country with a Muslim majority in the north and a predominantly Christian country in the south.
Furthermore, in some states in the center and northwest of Nigeria, attacks by “bandits” are constant, as the armed groups that carry out kidnappings and robberies in the country are known in the country and who are sometimes branded by the authorities as “terrorists.” .
The assaults continue despite repeated promises to end the violence by the Nigerian government, which has reinforced the deployment of its security forces.
Enrique and Meghan decided to resign from their royal duties in January 2020 to start a new life in California (United States), where they reside with their two children: Archie and Lilibet. EFE
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