COMICA Responds to Miss World Cameroon over allegations of neglect

The Miss Cameroon Organising Committee, COMICA, has responded to allegations made by Julia Samantha Edima Assoumou, Cameroon’s representative at the Miss World 2024 competition in India, regarding the purported lack of support and care during the international event.

In a telephone interview with MMI, the Marketing Manager of COMICA, Nkolo Vanessa, expressed disbelief at Samantha’s claims and suggested that the beauty queen might have mispresented the situation, which appeared as though she was shifting responsibilities to the committee.

The 29-year-old Samantha had raised concerns over the absence of a makeup artist, a camera person, and a fan base to accompany her to India.

She said she struggled with her make-up, hanged around other pageants to get a picture, felt bad when her name was called at the competition, and didn’t have a fan base to cheer her up.

Samantha said she was basically doing everything by herself.

MMI presented these allegations to COMICA, and the body was surprised that they were coming from someone like Samantha, who has been in the industry for a long time and was supposed to understand the rules of such events.

COMICA’s Marketing Manager, Nkolo Vanessa, insisted that beauty pageant rules prohibit contestants from seeking external assistance with certain things, while the competition is ongoing.

Nkolo Vanessa emphasised that participants are expected to be self-sufficient in certain situations.

The contestant is supposed to learn how to do some of those things by herself in situations where the organisation does not accept external help.

“So I was trying to find out a little bit what she was trying to say. Because that has been the nature of the competition since its inception. We don’t have the right to bring someone to do the make-up. A beauty pageant queen is supposed to know how to do makeup; you have to know what to do, especially when you’re preparing for an international contest,” Vannessa told MMI.

What MMI does not know is whether other pageants at Miss World 2024 have makeup artists accompanying them at the event, which led Samantha to complain.

Samantha was sent a WhatsApp message to get clarifications about her earlier statement but received no reply at the time of this report.

Last week, Samantha shared a video on her official Facebook page in which she was doing the hair of another Miss World contestant, suggesting that the pageants are left on their own during camping.

Vannessa compared the Miss World Contest to the Miss Universe, where she said the rules are almost the same.

“They have partners, but the partner doesn’t make-up everyone. Miss Universe’s make-up partner does just the touch-up. And they’re there only to promote their brand.”

“The reason COMICA does not insist on making up our contestants is that doing so will violate the rules, and Miss World’s very costly licence could be withdrawn,” said Vanessa.

Samantha’s performance in the Miss World competition has been a topic of discussion, with her not making it to the top 20 in the head-to-head challenge held on February 27.

The competition, which commenced on February 20 in New Delhi, India, will end on March 9 in Mumbai.

Within this period, the Miss World organisers take care of the contestants’ transportation, feeding, and lodging.

The 112 beauty pageants are contesting for the crown of Miss World 2024, which is in its 71st edition.

The crowd-pulling event, viewed by millions across the world, has left Julia Samantha worried that she does not have people to cheer her on, unlike contestants from other countries.

According to Vannessa, the committee has tried to mobilise support for the country’s contestants in past competitions, but it is usually very costly.

This is because most of these events happen thousands of miles away.

“International beauty pageantry is not different from football. The only difference is that football is more known and there’s more funding. When Cameroon plays at the World Cup or the AFCON, you have to go and support your team. And generally, the people who support Cameroon are those who are locally established in that place. I’ve seen so many people take money from their pockets and say, ‘I’m going to support my country’. And it’s a very good question because we communicate a lot all year that, okay, this person is going to go for this pageant. It’s up to the Cameroonians because, to be honest, COMICA will not be paying even for five people. Paying for hotels, travel, and all that to support a mission; so far the last time was in El Salvador, in South America,” she said.

While Samantha expressed concern about lacking a supportive audience, COMICA assured that a delegation would be sent to support her during the final.

Julia Samantha Edima is representing Cameroon at Miss World because, on January 7, 2022, she beat 30 contestants to become Miss Cameroon, succeeding Audrey Nabila.

Although Cameroon has a new “Miss” now, Julia is still representing the country because the event was supposed to have taken place in the United Arab Emirates in 2023 but was later shifted to India in 2024, where it is ongoing.

In addition to her modelling career, the 29-year-old holds a Master’s degree in business communication, is a mental health advocate, and is also an actress.

©Mimi Mefo Info