The shameful attack on the Togo football team coach in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda has, it seems, persuaded the players to withdraw from the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. As organizers were Saturday night trying to persuade them to change their mind, it was suggested other teams might also quit the competition.
Responsibility for the assault which killed an assistant coach, a press officer and the driver of the vehicle has been claimed by the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), a rebel group seeking independence for the province, which is the heart of Angola’s hydrocarbon production. That FLEC should claim credit for a cowardly terror attack on an outstanding African football team, whose performance has inspired millions of Africans, once again underlines how far removed terrorists place themselves from decency and common humanity.
This tragedy is, however, about more than the callous act of another ruthless terror group. It presents important and alarming security questions about the World Cup football tournament, which starts in June in South Africa.
The organizers of the Africa Cup have done themselves little credit in their reaction to the attack. Their first response was to deny it had even taken place. Then they said the Togo team had broken an agreement that all teams would travel between venues by air. They claimed they had not been aware the players and their party would be traveling overland. Yet the half-hour attack on the team bus shortly after it entered Angolan territory from Congo-Brazzaville was only stopped from being a wholesale massacre by the presence of two cars of security agents who engaged the attackers with their own weapons. It is not yet confirmed, but it appears this escort was provided by the organizers, in which case they knew perfectly well the Togolese were arriving overland. If all competitors were obliged to travel by air, it seems extraordinary that tournament officials were not preparing a welcome for one of the competition’s star teams at Cabinda airport and would have asked on which flight it would be arriving. That alone would have allowed them to discover that the team was traveling by road.
Then there was the assurance last month by the Angolan government that they had put in place the highest level of security for all teams and spectators at the competition. When asked about the danger of a FLEC attack, one government minister, himself a former FLEC commander, went so far as to say the group no longer existed as anything more than a few protesters. If the Africa Cup organizers and the Angolan authorities really are seeking to shift the blame for the attack and for their own shortcomings onto the Togolese team, then it is discreditable.
It must be hoped that South African football bosses are watching and learning from Angola’s security debacle. Their country may lack internal strife but sadly the immensely high-profile World Cup must be considered as an international terror target. Security, therefore, needs to be of the very highest order indeed.
