2026 Youth Olympic Games: The Dakar City Hall deploys its volunteers to the heart of the COJOJ (Organizing Committee for the Youth Olympic Games) operation

Just weeks before the start of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), the City of Dakar officially presented its volunteers' flag to the organizing committee. A total of 150 volunteers will be mobilized to support this historic event. The flag presentation ceremony to the Youth Olympic Games Organizing Committee (YOGOC) took place on Tuesday, September 22nd. It was presided over by the Mayor of Dakar, Abass Fall, in the presence of organizing committee officials, representatives of the municipal administration, and numerous volunteers.

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In his address, the mayor of Dakar highlighted the role played for several years by the municipal volunteer corps. He recalled that this corps was created in 2010 to ensure security coverage in the city's services and its various areas of activity. "Within the framework of participatory security governance, the volunteer project plays an important role throughout the city's territory."

"As a cross-cutting service, it is present in the various departments to alert, secure and support the defense and security forces on administrative policing acts," he said.

For Dakar 2026, the municipality intends to strengthen its contribution by providing 150 volunteers to the Organizing Committee for the Youth Olympic Games (COJOJ). They will participate in various tasks during the Games: welcoming, orienteering, urban mobility, access control, monitoring, and assisting the public and delegations. "Welcoming, accommodating, orienting, access control, monitoring, and orienting will be among the tasks awaiting you as you interact with thousands of young people from diverse backgrounds," the mayor told the volunteers, urging them to demonstrate professionalism and availability: "I ask each of you to be dedicated, resilient, and professional in order to achieve the assigned objectives."

140 additional volunteers mobilized

Beyond the 150 volunteers assigned to the Organizing Committee for the Youth Olympic Games (COJOJ), Abass Fall specified that a pool of 140 additional volunteers had been recruited to provide security coverage for the celebration sites, craft, culinary, and artistic fairs, as well as access control in the stadiums and other services related to the event. For the city's mayor, this mobilization reflects Dakar's commitment to playing its full role in organizing the first Youth Olympic Games on the African continent.

"You are now volunteers of the world."

For his part, the COJOJ's Director of Human Resources, Bocar Lorent Sy, praised the collaboration between the organizing committee and the City of Dakar. According to him, this ceremony marks the "official integration" of the women and men who have been supporting the preparations for Dakar 2026 for several months. He acknowledged the contribution of municipal volunteers during the recruitment and mobilization efforts, noting that these 150 employees now join the group of 6,000 volunteers from around the world: "You are indeed volunteers for the City of Dakar, but you have become volunteers for the world. Without volunteers, there will be no Games," he emphasized.

The head of the Organizing Committee for the Youth Olympic Games (COJOJ) also emphasized the human dimension of this experience, noting that the volunteers will gain real added value in terms of teamwork, communication, and adapting to a multicultural environment. "You are the first faces of Dakar 2026, those who will convey to the world the image of Teranga in all its splendor," he concluded.

Through this mobilization, the City of Dakar and the COJOJ are joining forces to guarantee the success of this historic event.