By G9ija
Miss Congo, Dorcas Kasinde, has won the 2018 Miss Africa Beauty Pageant hosted by the Cross River Government.
The contest took place in the early hours of Friday at the Calabar International Conference Centre.
Ms Kasinde, who beat Nigeria’s Chiamaka Nnaemeka and Zambia’s Gladys Kayumba to the second and third positions respectively to clinch the crown, went home with $35,000 and a sport utility vehicle.
She was crowned by the winner of the 2017 edition of the pageant, Miss Gaseangwe Balopi of Botswana.
Earlier, the governor of Cross River, Ben Ayade, said it was time for Africans to appreciate themselves.
Mr Ayade said that Africa does need the western media to tell its story, which they always centred on poverty and wars.
“This is a celebration of African beauty, brain and heritage; the world will see what African brain and beauty is all about.
“The judges should come down and look at those things that make a woman truly African; it is not just the skin colour.
“Tunisians and Moroccans are light-skinned but they are Africans,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 25 countries participated in the event.
They include Cameroon, Morocco, Tanzania, Togo and Ghana.
Nigerian singers Innocent Idibia (2face) and Tiwatope Savage-Balogun (Tiwa Savage) entertained the audience.