Pétanque in Comoros

Comoros is a small but increasingly competitive pétanque nation: its men's triplette finished fifth in the world at the 2023 World Championship in Benin, and in 2025 the archipelago won its first African Championship medals, including a first-ever continental final. The islands are now preparing to showcase the sport as hosts of the 2027 Indian Ocean Games.

History

Pétanque in Comoros is governed by the Fédération Comorienne de Pétanque (FCP), one of the roughly two dozen national federations affiliated with the FIPJP on the African continent. We could not independently verify an official FCP website; Abdillah Mzé Boina, known as "Franck," was reported as federation president in Al-Watwan coverage of the 2023 World Championship and in coverage as recent as 2024. Dr Nizar Ahamada, who headed the federation's Ngazidja (Grande Comore) branch in 2023 and 2024, was described as the federation's vice-president in Comorian press coverage (alwatwan.net, comoresinfos.net) of the 2025 African Championship. Comorian press accounts trace the game's local popularity in part to Madagascar, from where it spread to the archipelago's main cities alongside the more general French-colonial diffusion of boules sports across the region. Moroni's Oasis boulodrome is among the capital's known venues, and Ngazidja alone has fielded around ten clubs for national qualifying competitions.

The African confederation has been in institutional dispute since January 2025, when a congress in Dakar established the Confédération Africaine de Pétanque Sport (CASP) as a parallel body to the Confédération Africaine des Sports Boules (CASB), which had been led by Idrissou Ibrahima of Benin. A Court of Arbitration for Sport award of 21 May 2026 annulled FIPJP's withdrawal of recognition from the CASB without excluding CASP from the FIPJP, and CASP elected Morocco's Mahmoud Archane as its president at a general assembly in Abidjan on 23 May 2026. The two bodies remained split as of September 2026.

World Championship: Fifth in Triples

Comoros's best result on the world stage in recent years came at the 50th World Championships in Cotonou, Benin (8-17 September 2023). The Comorian men's triplette of Djanfar Youssouf (captain), Miftahou M'dahoma Djaé, Hazdine Radjabou, and Hadji Moustoifa Ahmed won two of its five qualifying games (beating Turkey 13-8 and Ukraine 13-7) and reached the quarterfinals, where it lost 13-7 to Spain. Comoros finished tied for fifth place alongside Congo, Morocco, and Senegal, making it the second-best African nation that year behind Burkina Faso, which reached the semifinals. Thailand won the 2023 title, beating Spain 13-10 in the final. In the precision shooting event at the same championship, Djanfar Youssouf was eliminated by Thailand's Ratchata Khamdee.

Financial and visa obstacles then kept Comoros from building on that result. The federation could not raise the money to travel to the 9th African Championship in Marrakech, Morocco (June 2024), after its planned budget of 12 million Comorian francs was cut to 4.8 million and the necessary support did not arrive. Comoros had qualified for the 2024 World Championships in Dijon, France (December 2024) through its fifth place in Cotonou, but France refused the team's visas and Comoros did not compete.

African Championship: First Medals

At the continental level, Comoros was among the 16 nations at the 8th African Championship in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (November 2021), finishing ninth according to Comorian press. The breakthrough came at the 10th African Championship in Nouakchott, Mauritania (22-28 November 2025), where a four-player squad of Djanfar Youssouf ("Mpidjani"), Zaïdou Maoulida Mhamadi, Zaïd Ali Moindjié Zaïd, and Nourdine Hamada Issa, coached by Fahad Attoumani, entered all four disciplines. Comoros came home with its first African Championship medals:

• Silver, singles (tête-à-tête): Zaïdou Maoulida Mhamadi beat Madagascar's former world singles runner-up Faralahy Urbain Ramanantiaray ("Baloty") 13-11 in the semifinal to give Comoros its first-ever African Championship final, before losing the final 13-7 to Côte d'Ivoire's Salif Kourouma. (One Malagasy report credited the semifinal win to Djanfar Youssouf; Comorian press and other coverage name Zaïdou.)
• Bronze, precision shooting: Djanfar Youssouf reached the semifinals; the title went to Mauritania's Amadou Traoré.

In the triples, Comoros reached the quarterfinals before losing 13-3 to eventual champion Tunisia, and it was among the five nations that earned places at the 2026 World Championship through the qualifying tournament held in Nouakchott (see our 2026 World Championship preview).

Indian Ocean Island Games

Pétanque is part of the program of the Jeux des Îles de l'Océan Indien (Indian Ocean Island Games, JIOI). At the 11th edition in Madagascar in 2023, Djanfar Youssouf won bronze for Comoros in precision shooting, according to Al-Watwan.

Federation Contact

The Fédération Comorienne de Pétanque (FCP), a FIPJP member since 1998, is headquartered at B.P. 142, Moroni, Comores, and led by president M'Zé Boina Abdillah (the same president named in the History section above) alongside secretary Fahad Attoumani, who has also led the national team as coach. The federation can be reached at federationcomoriennepetanque@gmail.com or by phone at +269 335 07 45 / +269 333 19 87; its FIPJP-registered official email is comores@fipjp.com.

Looking Ahead: Hosting the 2027 Indian Ocean Games

Comoros is scheduled to host the 12th Indian Ocean Island Games in 2027, and pétanque has been reported among the 18 disciplines retained for the multi-sport event, a rare opportunity for the archipelago to showcase the game to a home crowd alongside regional rivals Madagascar and Mauritius. Combined with its 2023 world result and 2025 continental medals, the Games give Comorian pétanque its highest-profile platform yet as the federation looks to build a deeper competitive base across Ngazidja, Anjouan, and Mohéli.