Four African boxers qualified to the quarterfinals on Friday and Saturday in the 2008 Olympic Games second boxing preliminary round (round of 16) held at the Workers� Gymnasium in Beijing.

The results of African athletes who were in competition for a place at the quarterfinals in Men�s Bantam, Men�s Feather, Men�s Fly, Men�s Light Fly, Men�s Light categories are as follows:

�In Men�s Fly (51kg) Round of 16 held Saturday: Cherif Walid from Tunisia edged Lee Oksung from Korea by points 11-5.

�In Men�s Bantam (54kg) Round of 16 held on Friday: Julie Bruno from Mauritius edged Tojibaev Hoorshid from Uzbekistan by points 16-4.

�In Men�s Bantam (54kg) Round of 16 held on Friday: Ikgopoleng Khumiso from Botswana beat Moroccan Mesbahi Hicham after the referee stopped the contest.

�In Men�s Feather (57kg), Round of 16 held on Friday: Chadi Abdelkader from Algeria beat Adi Sailom from Thailand by points 7-6.

�In Men�s Light Fly (48kg) Round of 16: Uutoni Jafet from Namibia edged by Maszczyk Lukasz from Poland by points +5-5.

�In Men�s Light Fly (48kg) Round of 16: Plange Manyo from Ghana edged by Carvalho Paulo from Brazil by points 21-12.

�In Men�s Feather (57kg) Round of 16: Santos Reyes Arturo from Mexico beat Shili Alaa from Tunisia by points 14-2.

�In Men�s Light (60kg) Round of 16 held on Friday: Lawal Rasheed Olawale from Nigeria edged by Javakhyan Hrachik from Armenia by points 12-0.

�In Men�s Middle (75kg) Round of 16: Sutherland Darren John from Ireland edged Kassel Nabil from Algeria after the referee stopped the contest.

……………..

API/SourceAPA

Many Nigerian nationals living in Cameroon see the handover of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon as the strengthening of the sisterly relations between the two countries as “an example of wisdom which should be emulated.”

Estimated at about four million people in Cameroon, the Nigerian community concentrates particularly in commercial activities and agricultural chiefly in the trade of electronic appliances.

They also dominate the small-scale fishing and the sale of spare parts sectors.

The president of the Association of Nigerian Nationals of Douala (ARND), Humphrey Ido, said the handover of Bakassi is a good thing for the population of both countries who will continue to maintain the good-neighbourly relations, adding that this border dispute is the making of the political leaders.

“We are happy that peace is preserved between our two countries. For us, the Bakassi case is a problem of politicians. The peoples of the two countries have nothing to do with it, but unfortunately suffer the consequences of such misunderstanding,” he declared.

“Our wish is that this peace is durable, since the two peoples have been living together for decades,” Mr. Ido continued.

Nigerians in Douala admitted to “never having truly a problem of integration in Cameroon”, even at the height of the armed crisis between Yaounde and Abuja.

The mayor of the island of Manoka, which houses the headquarters of the 6th district of Douala, Mr. Ernest Edimo, said that nearly 70 percent of his district�s population comprises of foreigners, including Beninese, Ghanaians, Liberians, Malians, Sierra Leoneans, Togolese and especially Nigerians who represent 50 percent.

At the Yabassi Camp district where the Nigerian community in Douala is concentrated, some Nigerians hailed “the happy outcome” of the Bakassi case.

They said the border dispute “concerns only politicians”.

Apart from Douala and Yaounde where they are very much present in the trade of spare parts, the strongest concentrations of Nigerians in Cameroon are in the border regions, particularly in the provinces of Adamaoua in the far north, the north, north-west and south-west provinces.

The Bakassi case dates back to December 1993 when Nigeria had annexed this allegedly- oil rich small territory of 1000 square kilometres.

Cameroon took the case before the United Nations and won the case following the verdict without appeal at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague on October 10, 2002.

Moreover, the 12 June 2006 UN-backed Green Tree agreement (USA) between the presidents of the two countries determined the handover calendar of Bakassi to Cameroon.

————-

API/SourceAPA