Angola
(Ed. Note: we’ve been following this all day but nothing more to report at this very moment. Still, bumped to the top for anyone catching up on the story.)
Togo’s national team bus has reportedly been machine-gunned by Angolan rebels. Three players and the driver have apparently been injured in the attack. The team is in Angola for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Striker Thomas Dossevi spoke to Radio Monte Carlo: “We are still at hospital. We were attacked like dogs and had to hide for 20 minutes under the seats to avoid the bullets.”
Updates follow after the jump.
Update @ 1:00 pm EST:
As expected, more information is now trickling out. According to various sources, including Sky, the team was traveling in Angola (although there are conflicting reports that Angolan or Congolese rebels were responsible) at the time of the attack. The bus driver as killed “on the spot.” Soccernet reports that the injuries include “GSI Pontivy goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilalé and Vaslui FC defender Serge Akakpo. Others reported injured are an assistant coach, a doctor and a journalist who was following the team. Alaixis Romao, the Grenoble player, told RMC he could count seven people injured.” The attack lasted twenty minutes, during which the players protected themselves by huddling on the floor of the bus. Per Ryan in the comments, Adebayor is not one of the injured. Still, all in all, a very grim scene and you can’t help but feel this could have been much, much worse.
Update 1:53 pm EST:
Togo has its camp in the Congo and was traveling to Cabinda, an exclave of Angola (see map), where the team’s first game was scheduled for Monday according to the BBC. Cabinda is an oil rich region of Angola that has a vibrant rebel separatist movement. Hindsight is 20/20 but who were the ad wizards who came up with this one?
Update 2:34 pm EST:
This article digs up an Emmanuel Adebayor quote from earlier regarding playing in Cabinda. It’s eerie.
Before leaving for the tournament, Adebayor was asked by British journalists whether he had any reservations about playing in the politically unstable Cabinda region of Angola.
“We were born in Africa so we know what it’s about. Some people might be afraid which is normal, I can understand that. But I’m going back to Africa, to one of the countries on my continent, and I’m prepared for Cabinda. I will enjoy myself,” the former Arsenal forward said.
Update 3:15 pm EST:
The Telegraph has more details from the incident and a report that the ACN is in danger of collapse. Perhaps the most shocking part is the way that organizers initially reacted to the incident:
The situation was made even more chaotic because the competition’s organisers, when contacted by reporters, originally claimed that the Togo bus had simply suffered a burst tyre.
This does not bode well for the ACN being able to go forward. Further, despite the fact that Angola’s military had already been mobilized, it appears that local factions are now offering to provide protection because they claim the government can’t handle it (rough translation available here). If I were running an EPL team, I’d probably be on the phone right now figuring out how to recall my players. And despite the feeling of continental pride that players must feel, you have to wonder if they’ll want to depart as well for their own safety. What a mess.
Update 4:04pm EST:
Togo midfielder Alaixys Romao has said that his country are likely to now pull out of the tournament:
“No-one wants to play, we’re not capable of it. We’re thinking first of all about the health of our injured because there was a lot of blood on the ground.”
Organizers say that the tournament will still go ahead despite the attack and there is no official word yet on Togo’s participation. Togo are due to play Ghana on Monday.
Update 4.55pm EST:
We were speculating about this on the UF threads, but it’s confirmed that Portsmouth have begun the process of trying to get their players home.
A club spokesman issued the following statement: “We will be asking the FA to talk to Fifa to ensure the players’ safety. That is paramount, and if the players’ safety can’t be ensured, then the players should be sent home.”
If assurances can’t be given, there’s no reason to think that other clubs won’t follow suit, thus hampering the ACN’s efforts to continue without a lot of the players set to be involved.
Aston Villa’s Moustapha Salifou is said to be “shaken but okay” after the club managed to contact his brother.
Update 7pm EST: CNN.com has the story on its main page now, with the reporter reading the same exact Adebayor quote from above (Does she read UF??). If CNN thinks that this is newsworthy, you can officially commence the World Cup 2010 backlash now.
Wow!
Adebayor jokes, kosher or not?
Probably not yet. Upset at the way he dogged it at Arsenal after getting paid, but do not want to guy to get machine-gunned playing for his country (or playing for anyone). This sounds pretty bad so far.
The driver has now been declared dead. Terrible story.
According to the lady who first mentioned it on the arses, Adebayor was not injured. Pretty sure she’s getting her information from TalkSport.
also it appears they were on there way to angola and were in the Republic of Congo per BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/2010/01/100108_togoteam.shtml
I don’t see how they don’t pull out because of this. Clubs should be flying charters down there as we speak to pull their players.
Agree umlaut. This is terrible.
two of the injured players are Kodjovi Obilala and Serge Akakpo, according to
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/breaking-togo-natl-team-attacked-by-assault-weapons.html
and
http://www.francefootball.fr/FF/breves2010/20100108_172827_le-bus-du-togo-mitraille.html
Extremely brief statement confirming Adebayor was not hurt.
http://mcfc.co.uk/News/Club-news/2010/January/Adebayor-fine
Luckily the idiots fired the majority of their ammunition on the first bus, which had all the equipment in it, mistakenly thinking the players were inside.
If the rebels spent 20 minutes shooting at the buses, with players hiding under the seats, that is a staggering display of ineptitude on the rebels’ parts.
@The Fan’s Attic: Togo’s pretty damn far from Angola. Why the hell did they take a bus through a war zone instead of flying?
Does anyone know if there has been an official FIFA/CAF comment yet, or is mighty Sepp still polishing off dessert en route to the cheese course?
@James T: The rebels fired on Sepp’s bus too, but they didn’t have silver bullets, so he just cackled maniacally and drove off.
@ben: Togo has it’s training camp in the Congo. They were traveling to Cabinda, a region where rebels are fighting for independence, where the first game was scheduled. Brilliant place to hold a match.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8449319.stm
Being a typical American, I had no idea that Cabinda existed, much less that rebels were fighting for independence there. But wouldn’t most Africans have some idea that this might be true? And question the intelligence/sanity of scheduling a footy match there? Who the f**k thought this was a good idea? And how many different govts/assoc’s just blindly signed off on it? No one stuck their hand up and said “Guys, maybe we should move this match to someplace, you know, a little more under control?”
Oh, wait, it’s FIFA. Never mind.
It just pisses me off that some poor guy(s) died, and others injured, because of stupidity and corruption…
OK. I know SA is much more economically advanced and politically stable than Angola, but if I’m the US and England, I’m on the horn with the State Department and the English equivalent to make sure we have lock-down security. This shows the insanity of playing tournaments in places like Angola. It’s amazing nothing happened at the U-17 WC in Nigeria.
I’m calling Blackwater.
Blackwater no longer exists – they rebranded after they got in trouble for killing too many civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You know Blackwater still exists, they just don’t want anybody to know it. They are out there and for the right price, they will protect you.
they’re the A-Team?
correct!
The Onion has a time machine, I swear. They posted this today
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/congo_approves_economic_stimulus
Congo Approves Economic Stimulus Package of AK-47 For Every Citizen
Teams scheduled to play at Cabinda:
Ivory Coast
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Togo
I’m really really happy Cameroon is not on that list.
The obvious solution is to move games from Cabinda back to Luanda, the capital.
The obvious solution is to not play soccer games in the middle of a civil war.
Adebayor says the team will vote tomorrow on whether to continue: http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,2483_5844277,00.html
>But I’m going back to Africa, to one of the countries on my >continent,
This is one of those kumbaya moments which is idiotic at the core… ‘you foreign white devils dont understand, its one of the (MANY) countries in a very wonderful loving black continent. We all love each other and braid each others hairs. ‘
I like my city and even my country but even I realize that there are a lot of f**ked up people living in both and that there are places that are more violent than my quiet street.
Not everyone is nice, not every place is safe.
Ade, baby, there are a lot of f**ked up people in your continent and youre a big giant piniata for them. Famous, rich, well known. You might as well go with a bullseye on your back. But noooo, you have trust in your fellow brother because you are from the same continent and black on black violence doesnt exist.
Music legend Fela Kuti was a legend in Nigeria but he was shot and his mother killed by black gunmen. There are a**holes everywhere but in some countries they have more a**holes armed and more a**holes that have nothing to lose.
Youre gonna trust those kind a**holes just because of that strong bond you share because your parents both f**ked on the same continent?
Whistling by the graveyard might make you feel braver but if brain eating zombies come out and attack you, whistling is going to be as useful as singing ‘kumbaya my brotha’ when gunmen are shooting at you.
>Some people might be afraid which is normal,
Ya think?
Fear is a normal and sane reaction
Hindsight you say? Bull!!
I think most sane people could look at a list of countries and figure out which ones you shouldnt hold such an event and not all of them are in the middle east.
Of course, were gonna have a WC South Africa and an Olympics in Rio. I cant just figure which of the two is a bigger cesspool.
They should leave and suffer no repercussions. One less team in the first round pool wont change much anyways.
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