Nigerian Army Chief’s Team Beat Prince Harry’s Team In Volleyball Game

On Saturday, during a three-day visit to Nigeria to promote his Invictus Games, Prince Harry played a seated volleyball match with army veterans, the majority of whom had been wounded fighting the country’s Islamist insurgency.

The Duke of Sussex landed in Abuja with his wife Meghan on Friday, where they visited a school for a mental health event. During the tour, the prince also met wounded Nigerian soldiers in the northwest.

Britain’s Prince Harry (CL), Duke of Sussex, and Britain’s Meghan (CR), Duchess of Sussex, attend an exhibition sitting volleyball match at Nigeria Unconquered, a local charity organisation that supports wounded, injured, or sick servicemembers, in Abuja on May 11, 2024 as they visit Nigeria as part of celebrations of Invictus Games anniversary. (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)

At an officer’s mess complex in Abuja, Harry’s yellow-clad side competed in an exhibition match against a team led by Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, the country’s highest commander.

The prince’s squad seized an early lead, chanting “Team Harry, Team Harry” as they scored, with players seated on foam mats, some missing legs.

They did, however, lose 25-21 against the commander’s squad, Team CDS.

Britain’s Prince Harry (2nd L), Duke of Sussex, takes part in an exhibition sitting volleyball match in Abuja on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)

Peacemaker Azuegbulam, a former Nigerian soldier who lost his leg in war in the northeast, was on the Duke’s team and became the first African to win gold at the Invictus Games in Germany last year.

“It’s an honour for Nigeria and Africa to have Prince Harry here,” he told AFP ahead of the match.

Before visiting Nigeria, Prince Harry was in London on Wednesday to commemorate the games’ tenth anniversary.

Britain’s Prince Harry (CR), Duke of Sussex, and Britain’s Meghan (CL), Duchess of Sussex, pose for a photographs with players in Abuja on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)

As with all of his excursions to the UK since moving to the United States in 2020, his visit reignited talk of a reconciliation with his family. However, he did not meet with his father, King Charles.

Harry, a former army captain who worked as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan, created Invictus in 2014. Since then, the games have expanded, supporting recovery via sports.

The Nigerian military headquarters invited him to visit. General Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff, lauded Nigerian troops’ experience at the Invictus Games.

On Friday, Harry traveled to Kaduna, Nigeria’s northwest, without his wife to visit a military hospital and chat with combat-wounded servicemen.

Britain’s Prince Harry (CR), Duke of Sussex, and Britain’s Meghan (CL), Duchess of Sussex, attend an exhibition sitting volleyball match in Abuja on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)

On Sunday, the couple will fly to the country’s economic center, Lagos, to participate in a basketball tournament and a fundraiser.

Nigeria’s military forces are fighting armed groups across multiple fronts.

Since 2009, a simmering Islamist insurgency in the northeast has killed over 40,000 people and displaced an additional two million.

In the northwest and central states, heavily armed criminal bands known as bandits conduct large kidnappings for ransom and raid villages from camps hidden deep in distant forests.

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