The Togo national football team’s bus was ambushed as they were on their way to the African Cup of Nations. They came under attack from machine gun fire for 30 minutes whilst they were trapped on the bus. Two of their players were shot and taken away for treatment, whilst the bus driver was shot dead.
There has been discussion today of whether the Togo team will take part in the competition, with City striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, claiming that a lot of the players want to go home to their families.
“I think a lot of players want to leave,” said Adebayor. “I don’t think they want to be at this tournament any more because they have seen their death already. Most of the players want to go back to their family. No one can sleep after what they have seen today. They have seen one of their team-mates have a bullet in his body, who is crying, who is losing consciousness and everything. So we will have a good meeting tonight, everyone will go to their room, they will rest and we will see tomorrow morning we will make a decision which is good for our life. We are still in shock. If the security is not sure, then we will be leaving tomorrow. I don’t think they will be ready to give their life. We will discuss everything as a team and we will take a decision that we think is good for our career, is good for our life and good for our family.”
The organisers of the tournament have said that no teams were supposed to travel by bus to Angola, with Togo the only team to do so.
Man Utd News 24/7
Awful.
very similar to what happened in Pakistan recently where the Srilankan cricket team was attacked.But both have been extremely lucky that no players have died.That would have been a disaster.Our thoughts with the Angolan driver
Although it will be bad for us if the ANC gets cancelled, no one deserves to go through this. R.I.P the brave driver who didn’t make it through.
Yeah lets hope that they dont come back. Lets keep ‘em away from their clubs as long as possible lol.
But on a serious note, its awful, and a major issue of late.. The terrorists nowadays are aiming much higher.
But its kinda the team’s fault too, since they were clearly told not to travel by bus.
Hurr,
it has already been said that the ACN wont be cancelled. It will go on regardless whether Togo decide to participate or pull out.
I am so saddened by this. I had my concerns about this CAN because Angola still has its problems but never in a million years did I imagined something like this happening. I was just reading the Angolan News now and the Burkina Faso coach blamed the Togo management for the situation because the Togo team were the only ones to refuse staying at a place where four other teams are staying and has lots of security.
Everyone knows how unstable Cabinda is. The War never ended in Cabinda because of the independence quest but being that the province is the biggest producer of oil in Angola there is no chance in hell that the Angolan government will let this happen.
As a PALOP it saddens me that FLEC has chosen to do this against innocent people who have nothing to do with the province’s problems. What will they achive by attacking the Togo team? If anything this as hurt their cause because now their are being compared to other terrorist groups.
I truly hope the CAN goes ahead and this never happens again. The Angolan people deserve better, Africa deserves better.
Its a sad day when people mix politics with sport and so often over the last decade politics has played a major part in various sports. RIP the bus driver and although its good 4 utd that teams such as chelski and citeh are missing players through the ANC i’d rather they returned if it meant it was best for their safety.
With all this going on it does make u think how safe will the world cup be???
In all honesty b4 these events ive been thinking how unsafe that continent is and wha type of frame of mind will players be in during the world cup if there are more instances like the attack yesterday?
I can understanf FIFA holding the world cup in Africa as a first but ever since they recieved the rights as hosts its been one thing after another and i’d admit i have a horrible feeling about this years world cup!
This may sound harsh, but why is it the little guy doing his job is the one that gets fucking killed..
awful news and glad that adebayor is ok,as much as i dont like the man you have to put rivalry aside and wish him all the best,hope they all make swift recovery and play in the tournement and dedicate it to that poor bus driver who was killed and the injured..go togo.
yeah it’s sad that an insignificant bus driver dies and no one even mentions him – the players are ok so thats alright then! sorry just letting off some steam – similary in pakistan all those security died defending the sri lanka team yet hardly any mention was made of their brave efforts… these are the real heroes, the insignificant ones
I just hope this shit doesn’t happen again ever. Especially not in South Africa.
WTF do they mean by saying the players should have travelled by bus?, it is up to the organisers to provide the security irrespective of how the players want to travel. Such an act is unacceptabel and the organisers have to take reponsiblity for it adn ensure such cowardly acts dont happen when the tournament gets underway and during the WC
Togo have withdrawn from the ACON
Who can blame them for withdrawing? Poor guys, I can imagine how traumatised they all are. I blame the organization who should know better then use Cabinda as one of the host cities. I can’t believe FIFA didn’t know about the Cabinda situation and prevented Angola from hosting games there.
Mauly,
so true and all the millionaires walk away without so much as a scratch! Holy God must be a Neo-Conservative Fascist!
Who attacked the bus?
@Nectarine, FLEC (Front of Liberation of the State of Cabinda ) attacked the bus. The civil war in Angola ended in 2002 but Cabinda has been fighting for independence for 30 years. They saw this as a good opportunity to let the world know about their fight ie killing innocent people who have nothing to do with their fight.
@Nectarine
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8449319.stm
Contains the whole details
In any other sport the tounament would be cancelled or postponed – but it seems Football really is more important than life and death!
It’s horrific and it’s insane. What the hell is anybody doing hosting a tournament in an unstable country? This isn’t some sort of unpredictable terrorist outrage, it’s exactly the sort of shit that happens when you host a major sporting event in a country that is still reeling from the effects of a war and where most of the population live on less than a dollar a day. By all means bring these guys into the international, or at least the African, community, but this is what rushing things has done, a man is dead, others are hurt and the competition’s reputation has suffered a blow that might topple it this season and certainly won’t help it in the long term.
This will further cement the ACON’s reputation as a joke tournament, except that now it’s a lot less funny.
There should have strict security, and the african force should have been cautious and expect anything to happen. What a tragedy, an awful thing to happen.
It seems now that more were killed, reserve keeper and a couple of officials according to Eurosport.
The numpty who allowed a massive football tournament to take place in a country ravished by war should be held accountable in some way. I fear this isn’t the end of it, whats going to happen to the Togo fans that are already there, are they going to go out on the rampage. If FIFA had any decencey they would move the tournament to another country sharpish. They can reorganise cup games with little more than 2 days notice (replays and the like) so they should organise this somewhere else. The bill naturally should be footed by the CAN and the Angolan nation and large reparations paid to Togo, a football ban on Angola for 5 years shouldnt go amiss.
Sep Blater are you going to do anything you fucking coward other than say a few token words, you really are a fucking fat reprobate. I say dump Sep Blatter in the middle of the Sahara and let me walk beside him. I wouldn’t give that cunt the steam from my piss to quench his thirst.
Dohouse n mufc is my religion,African cup a joke tournament?..fuck off we dont dictate 2u how u do ur thngs,..u thnk Africa is Europe?..if u av bn doubting abt s.Africa,.then go n hang ur self!..cz thats where it wil b held,.if u feel uncomfortable,.then go and tell blatter..fucking cunts!..u thinj Africa doesnt have rights or security?..Europe,America are even worse with terrorists yet u are yapping about Africa…
Africa is not a country its a continent, what happened should never have happened but when I hear guys like Phil Brown saying the players should be made to come home it irks me. Home? where the fuck is home? England? Africa is home, what happened can happen anywhere
Terrible news, it goes without saying I hope there are no further incidents like this during the tournement – one I always enjoy.
hope that there isnt anything like this during the world cup next summer :S
R.I.P the brave bus driver x
Why do people assume that because it happened in Angola it will happen in South Africa, and it should be removed from the whole continent
If this happened in Russia in 2018, will there be calls for the English 2018 World Cup to be taken place elsewhere? I doubt it!!!
I wonder why Emmanuel Adebayor didn’t run the length of the bus to celebrate in front of the Gunners this time.
@Emmanu Daktari
The ACON is getting close to being a joke. Mostly because it is held so often. Also because it’s not taken seriously by managers. It ought to be held once every four years and then it would be seen more as an event and less of a pest for teams. End of the day it’s a bi-annual tournament that can, in the case of the clubs of the best players, cost teams titles. There is enough quality football in Africa to merit an immense tournament, but not this often, and not if they host it in countries with serious security issues.
I’ve just heard that Togo want to play on. The country recalled them, the team want to stay, frankly that’s pretty amazing. Not like, amazing amazing, I mean compared to what a soldier or doctor or somebody of that sort has to deal with its barely amazing at all, but by the standards of footballers it’s very impressive.
Togo have reversed their decision, they will participate in the tournament.
Doghouse,.its ok,.i understand u,.but just know that in Africa,the competition is massive,.just wait and see that all the stadiums will be full,.we never told Europe to host its tournament after 4 years,.so let Africa do what it does,.and 4 that,know it that in June and July ,there are very heavy rains in most of Africa til u cant even kick a ball,.
For all of you questioning the safety of players and fans in the world cup next June,you have absolutely nothing worry about. Angola is nothing like South Africa. Its like comparing England to Serbia(20 years ago). Why AFCON chose to have a international tournament over there bothers me more than anything. How stupid must you be…
Phil Brown is a chick with a dick, and he should be muzzled.
people who questioning south africa’s ability to hold a world cup because of waht happend in angola are pretty ignorant (Phil Brown). what has happended to the togo team is very very sad but south africa is a completly different country that isnt even close to angola. Its like saying if a bomb goes off in spain england should not host the olympics because they are on the same continent. south africa is a democratic country that dosnt have a province rebelling against the goverment, like those rebels in cabinda. South africa is more developed and can handle hosting big tournament because they have done it before eg: the rugby world cup/ the cricket world cup. I know they are not as big tournaments but i am convinced security in south africa will be fine for all involved as there are no unstable areas like cabinda in angola.