Bus carrying Togo's football team attacked by gunmen in Angola

Bus carrying Togo's football team attacked by gunmen in Angola
From Nick Reeves in Luanda, Angola
January 09, 2010 Gunmen have shot at buses carrying the Togo team to the African Cup of Nations in Angola, leaving one dead and nine wounded, but organisers insisted the tournament would go ahead.

Article from http://www.foxsports.com.au
Southern Africa ... Cabinda is 2400km from Pretoria. Courtesy Google Maps

Two players were among the injured, while a driver was killed as bullets sprayed at the team's vehicles as they crossed into the troubled Angolan province of Cabinda from Congo-Brazzaville, according to a Togo official.

Many dived under their seats when the gunfire started. Squad member Thomas Dossevi said the team - one of the strongest in African football - had been "fired on like dogs".

Two players - goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale and defender Serge Akakpo - were among the wounded, Dossevi told AFP.
"One of them (Akakpo) took a bullet in the back and the other (Obilale) was hit in the kidneys," Dossevi said. "The assailants were hooded and armed to the teeth. We stayed under the seats for 20 minutes. It was horrible."

Obilale plays at French fifth division side GSI Pontivy while Akakpo plays with Romanian outfit Vaslui.


“The assailants were hooded and armed to the teeth. We stayed under the seats for 20 minutes. It was horrible.” –Togo's Thomas Dossevi Describes the horror of the attack Two Barclays Premier League players - Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor and Aston Villa midfielder Moustapha Salifou - emerged unharmed from the attack, their clubs said.

The armed wing of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), embroiled in a decades-long separatist struggle, claimed responsibility in a communiqué cited by Portugal's Lusa news agency.

"This operation is only the start of a series of targeted actions that will continue in all the territory of Cabinda," it said.

Friday's mid-afternoon ambush targeted Angolan armed forces escorting the Togolese side, FLEC said. It went on to claim that one person had been killed and three seriously wounded.

FLEC signed a peace deal with Angola's government in 2006, but in recent months has claimed a spate of attacks on the military and foreign oil and construction workers in the province.

The former FLEC leader who signed the peace deal, Antonio Bento Bembe denounced the shooting as a "terrorist" act. He added that his erstwhile rebellion no longer existed as a unified force.


"These are small, unorganised groups that sometimes undertake subversive actions, terrorist acts," said Bento Bembe, who now is an Angolan government minister.

The head of the Togolese football federation, Willy Dogbatse, told AFP that the other injured included members of the sporting, administrative and medical staff accompanying the team to the tournament that kicks off Sunday.

All were being treated in a hospital in Cabinda city.

The gunfire broke out as they were pulling away from the border crossing, players said.

Richmond Forson, who plays with French fourth division side Thouars, told the French sports channel Infosport that a bus carrying the team's baggage took the worst of the gunfire.

"It was the baggage bus which went in front of us which took the bullets because they thought we were in there," Forson said.

Alaixys Romao, who plays for the French top flight side Grenoble, said the team was in shock and did not want to take part in the tournament.

"We've got players wounded, members of staff, and we're all just waiting for news," Romao told Infosport. "If it is possible, there should be a boycott of the tournament. Why not cancel all the matches. We just want to go back home."

But organisers said the games would go on.

"Our great concern is for the players, but the championship goes ahead," said Souleymane Habuba, spokesman for the Confederation of African Football.

He said the group's vice president had set off for Cabinda to find out first hand what had occurred, but questioned why Togo had elected to travel by road rather than flying.

"CAF's regulations are clear: teams are required to fly rather than travel by bus," he said.

Togo, one of Africa's top sides and who appeared in the last World Cup finals in Germany, were scheduled to start their campaign against Ghana on Monday in Cabinda.

The other teams in their group are Burkina Faso and the star-studded Core d'Ivoire whose squad includes Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure.

Despite long-running security concerns, oil-rich Cabinda is to host seven Nations Cup matches this month.

Angola as a whole is only just emerging from a 27-year civil war which erupted shortly after it received independence from Portugal and finally ended in 2002.


Agence France-Presse



Very dissapointing news, very unfortunate I think the Tournament should be postponed or moved smewhere else until Angola sort out there Sucurity issues.

Far out, that is crazy.

It is insane to keep the tournament going, as you said it should be postponed.