To celebrate the milestone, the mascot Masano the leopard for the Games due to take place between July 28 and August 6, unveiled last month, has been put on display in Kinshasa.

The Francophone Games are due to feature nine sports but also a range of cultural activities, including dance music, poetry sculpture and painting.

"The enthusiasm is more palpable every day as the Opening Ceremony of these Games approaches," a statement from Games organisers said.

"The authorities have invested a lot in the construction of sports and cultural infrastructures that we lacked in the past,” Kinshasa Academy of Fine Arts painter Arsene Lutondo said,

"Today, I am convinced that we will have the best Francophonie Games in Kinshasa and, as an artist, I am waiting to compete with other young people from the French-speaking world."

Masano represents the "diversity and energy of the young French speaking athletes and artists," organisers revealed, and is a familiar symbol as the emblem of the DRC.

The national football team are also known as the Leopards.

A inspection team from the International Francophone Organisation visited the Games installations in February and are set to return next month for an update on progress of final construction and renovation of venues.

These will be the second successive Francophone Games on the African continent, but the first since the 2017 event in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast.

They are set to take place after an interval of six years having twice been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and being re-allocated to Kinshasa after the withdrawal of the original hosts Moncton and Dieppe in New Brunswick in Canada.

A total of 42 nations are expected to take part in the Games.