CABINDA, Angola: Togo’s national soccer team, devastated by a shooting attack on its bus that killed at least three people, withdrew from the African Cup of Nations on Saturday.
The bus was in Angola about 10 km from the border of Congo when the gunfire began. When the ambush ended, 30 minutes later, the driver was dead and the team’s assistant coach and spokesman were mortally wounded.
The attackers fled back into Congo after the ambush, which also left at least eight players gravely injured, officials said.
Angola’s government blamed the region’s main separatist group, the FLEC, who also took responsibility for the attack, according to reports from Portugal’s state-run Lusa news agency.
“The championship will go on” despite the attack and the absence of Togo’s team, said Angola’s Sports Minister Goncalves Muandumba, whose government is hoping the tournament will give the country a chance to show it is recovering from decades of war.
Togo Football Federation Vice President Gabriel Ameyi said the team should have flown to Angola instead of driving.
The team decided to withdraw from the continent-wide tournament on Saturday, said Manchester City, the team of top player Emmanuel Adebayor who is also captain of the Togo team. Kodjovi “Dodji” Obilale, an injured goalkeeper who also plays for the French club Pontivy, was flown to South Africa and operated on in hospital for injuries to his back, said club president Philippe Le Mestre by telephone from western France. Le Mestre said the player was in stable condition. Togo coach Hubert Velud, quoted in an interview Friday on French radio RMC, said the assistant coach and the spokesman were hit by bullets in the stomach. Velud said he himself had been grazed by a bullet in the arm, and that keeper Kodjovi Obilale had been hit in the lower back. He said the Angolan Army had intervened and traded fire with the attackers: “One thing’s for sure, they saved our lives. Without them, the rebels would have killed us off because we were defenseless.”
Kossi Agassa — a goalie for French club Istres who was also to play for Togo in the tournament — told France-Info radio by phone that a Togo assistant coach and a spokesperson were killed in the attack.
