The team bus came under heavy gunfire on Friday evening in Angola from guerrilla fighters of a separatist group.
The attack happened just five minutes after the team crossed the border into Cabinda, which is separated from the main part of Angola by the Congo River and a stretch of territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rodrigues Mingas, a Cabinda official, said: “The Confederation of African Football had been warned several times the territory was at war. CAF had documents explaining this but they did not heed the warnings. The CAF must take responsibility.”
The driver of the bus died in the initial attack, while the team’s assistant coach Amalete Abalo and press officer Stanislas Ocloo died from their wounds yesterday. Goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale, who was shot in the back, was flown to Johannesburg for emergency treatment. Three other Togo officials were wounded.
It happened less than 48 hours before the start of the African Nations Cup, the continent’s most popular sporting event, and raised fresh fears over security and safety for when neighbouring South Africa hosts the World Cup, the first African nation to hold the world’s biggest single sport event.
A shaken Togo captain, Emmanuel Adebayor of Manchester City, who escaped the attack unharmed, said his team had no choice but to quit the African Nations Cup. Togo were scheduled to play three games in Cabinda City in a stadium built for the tournament.
“Our players have seen death and want to go back to their families,” said Adebayor. “I was one of those who carried the injured players into the hospital. All the players, everyone, was crying, calling their mums, crying on the phone, saying their last words because they thought they’d be dead.” Aston Villa’s Togolese midfielder Moustapha Salifou said: “Our security people saved us. They were in two cars, about 10 of them in total, and they returned fire. The shooting lasted for half an hour and I could hear the bullets whistling past me. It was like a movie.”
A crisis meeting was in session last night in the Angolan capital Luanda between local officials and the Confederation of African Football over tournament security.
Former Togo coach Otto Pfister, of Germany, said the assault would cast a shadow over the World Cup. “This is a real blow for Africa. It will obviously be linked directly with the World Cup now,” he said. “And it will give the critics a boost.”
South Africa has spent more than £1billion on new stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup. Many tickets have still to be sold for the tournament, which begins in June, and it is is feared Friday’s attack might persuade fans not to travel to the tournament.
The attack was carried out by the separatist group FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda). Cabinda is about half the area of Northern Ireland. Its people, ethnically and linguistically distinct from the people of “mainland” Angola, opposed their incorporation in 1956 into Angola by both territories’ former Portuguese colonial rulers.
FLEC began fighting the Portuguese in 1963 and, when Angola became independent in 1975, continued fighting the country’s new Marxist-Leninist MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) government.
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