Togo Bus Attack in Angola ahead of African Cup of Nations: Reaction & Some Serious Questions
So on the eve of the African Cup of Nations 2010, African football’s jewel in the crown, tragedy strikes. As was reported earlier, the Togo national team bus was ambushed by gunmen and shot at on it’s way from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the team’s base in Cabinda, where they were due to play their Group B Cup of Nations matches.
Reports are coming in all the time, but it is thought that the team bus driver was killed on the spot. Additionally, 4 players are thought to have been shot and team doctors are also seriously injured. Nantes forward Thomas Dossevi spoke to RMC, a French radio station after the attack.
“We were on our way from Congo to Angola. Five minutes after crossing the border, at around 15.00hrs, we were shot at. Some of us including myself were able to shield ourselves because we were at the back of the bus. I was so scared.
“Those at the front of the bus were shot. Many are badly injured. Our second goalkeeper Obilale was pouring with blood, I’m really scared for him. Its very serious. Our doctor is injured, our goalkeeping coach too. There was blood everywhere. All this for football? We are in a bad way.”
While reports on the story are unconfirmed and hazy at this time, there are some serious issues that need addressing here.
1, Why did tournament organisers choose Cabinda as a venue for the African Cup of Nations?
Nationalist movements and rebels in Cabinda have been fighting for independence for decades now. Since 1975 the Angolan army has fought against the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda, FLEC) in a war that has caused an estimated 35 percent of Cabinda’s 750,000 inhabitants to flee to the two Congos.
According to afrol News, the territory’s main active rebel force, Cabinda Enclave Liberation Front – Armed Forces of Cabinda (FLEC-FAC) met with the FLEC-Renovada rebel group as recently as last September to discuss a merge.
Given the history, and the obviously unresolved dispute, is Cabinda really a safe venue for an event featuring internationally renowned sports stars?
2, The organisers, CAF, Togo officials and the governing bodies have a lot to answer for
According to the BBC, “competition officials said they had not known that the Togolose team had decided to drive directly to Cabinda. They said they had expected the squad first to fly to the Angolan capital, Luanda, and from there to Cabinda.”
Even before this attack took place, this sort of disorganised planning should have been considered unacceptable. Why was nobody in a responsible position aware that Togo were planning to head through Congo to Cabinda by bus? Competition organisers’ main responsibility should be the whereabouts, wellbeing and safety of the competition’s participants. Knowing the history of incendiary politics in the region this should not have been left to chance.
Of course we do not know the full story here. Togolese players have been involved in regular disputes with officials over finances and payments over the last few years, even threatening to boycott matches on occasion. Why was the decision taken to cross such a dangerous border by bus, rather than flying to Luanda first as was suggested?
3, What happens to the competition now?
Dossevi stated in his interview that he no longer wanted to participate in the African Cup of Nations in Angola, and at this moment in time many Togo players will feel the same. The situation in Cabinda raises big question marks about the entire Group B and the safety of all four teams (Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast). What happens now? CAF and FIFA will need to decide and fast, as the first game is scheduled to take place on Sunday.
These are the main questions that arise at this early stage of what is a terrible, shocking and sad bit of news. I would also like to express my own personal contempt at the way this story has been reported by sections of the Western media. As I mentioned on Twitter, Sky Sports News’ coverage as the story broke was basically reduced to “oh, Adebayor is okay, now everyone back to Owen Coyle news and pictures of snowmen in Everton shirts.” Yes the Premier League is their golden goose and the only thing they seem to care about, but as a sports news channel they should be the go to place for such a hugely important incident. It should not be reduced to some sort of feature story packaged between transfer gossip and some bad weather.
Additionally, as is already happening just hours after the incident, sections of the European press are already somehow linking Angola and South Africa in order to question the World Cup 2010. Henry Winter, journalist for the Telegraph, got the ball rolling on Twitter and you can be sure it will continue. This is infuriating and frustrating in equal parts. Angola and South Africa are not the same country. They do not have the same political makeup. They are not the same place, they are not in the same area and they are not in the same part of Africa. Africa is a continent, not a country.
London is closer to Moscow than Luanda is to Cape Town. If a bomb goes off in Bosnia would you question the Olympics in London? One of the saddest parts of all this though, is the fact that attacks like these merely invite all the smirking and cynicism and stereotypes that were already being purported days, weeks and months ago by a press corps desperate to hammer Africa, for whatever self-serving reasons.
More later, all we can do now though is pray for the safety of those injured.
African Cup of Nations 2010, African Football, Angola, Politics and Society, TogoShare This Post!
About Jonathan F
The boss of this here... Creator and Editor of Just-Football.com and world football analyst, watcher, freelancer and all-round enthusiast. Write for FourFourTwo, have also written for ITV, When Saturday Comes and others. Open to offers.
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Excellent stuff and my tjoughts exactly.
Of course, Sky's dismissal of the ACN is due in no small part to the Premier League's clubs attitudes.
They are upset about losing their players to what someone on Twitter described as a "two bit tournament".
Thanks for reading blogdroed. Basically either the Togolese FA or CAF have some real explaining to do. Travelling by bus through such a dangerous route would be foolish for a tourist, let alone a team of international footballers guaranteed to attract worldwide attention.
I really really am gutted by all this.
Thanks Jonathan for raising and noting these important issues. I'd also just add a minor note that in the same way you state "Angola and South Africa are not the same country" there is a way in which Cabinda and Angola are not the same place–as your first issue above points out. Most of Angola really is recovering from their 27 year civil war. But Cabinda is a different conflict (in a part of the country that is not connected by land to the rest of Angola). And, to be even more particular, the hinterlands of the Cabinda enclave are a different place from the city of Cabinda–where the actual games are/were to have been played. So, as your 2nd issue above notes, the key issue here is really why Togo were allowed to travel by bus through the hinterlands.
Thanks again for the post.
Good post, thank you for bringing some much needed perspective to the reports everyone has seen.
It's depressing how little depth any mainstream media report (on anything) offers these day; the focus on speed and pageviews discourages thought and analysis by producers of content, and people swallow the superficial reports and run with them. Thus Congo = Africa, Adebayor = Togo. Etc, etc, etc.
[And when I say, "Congo," I mean "Angola." Sorry.]
And, by the way, I "really really am gutted by all of this" as well. Just gutted.
The British press always has been irresponsible, and their attitude toward this tragedy confirms that. Pray for Togo and especially those wounded in this despicable attack.
Without question the best single piece I've read on this terrible story so far.
Thank you.
Senseless, irresponsible and tragic. All too common adjectives in our times today thanks to terrorist acts like this. Here's hoping Togo plays and wins the whole thing!
http://bit.ly/8uZRGF
Thanks for the comments guys. The BBC were discussing the World Cup 2010 in a report earlier, which I think acts as a pretty accurate and depressing prelude to where debate of this whole issue is going to end up.
-Andrew Guest: I agree with your points about Cabinda being a unique part of Angola. It makes you question the motives behind assigning the area as one of the 4 venues for the African Cup of Nations 2010.
Jonathan
What BBC did is another form of propaganda of the west to make sure Africa remains the 'dark continent' as they have made the world to believe over the years but thanks to internet (which an African is the father of) and people like you. This irresponsible good for nothing people would have succeeded again in their quest. I cant understand the correlation between what has happened in angola and the world cup in southafrica. USA is the most terrorist threatened country in the world yet Canada is said to be one of the safest and most peaceful countries in the world yet the distance between the two countries is not as much as that of Angola and Southafrica.
A lot of blame in some of these comments attributed towards 'the west' and Jubril even goes as far to 'question motives' and mention the USA! Can people get over the conspiracy theories and bitterness? It is unintelligent. The focus of blame should be on the despicable human beings who shot at a bus full of innocent human beings rather than on any alleged anti-African sentiment. By focusing on other areas you are deflecting away from the true tragedy of what happened.The Cabinda news still headlines the BBC website and Twitter is not the centre of western media. Get some perspective.
The BBC has reported the events well. It was the first to report that the death toll has now unfortuantly risen to three.
@Anonymous #2 – The focus is firmly on the perpetrators of this attack, that is quite clear. However it is not 'unintelligent' or a 'conspiracy theory' to be indignant at the way reporting of this tragic incident is being handled by sections of the media.
Jubril is quite right in saying there is no direct correlation between South Africa and Angola and it is quite right to be angry at people in the media who mislead on a wide scale when linking the terrible events in Cabinda to the World Cup.
Jonathan
This is a fantastic article. Objectivity, clarity, and engaging, not trite, questions are all at the forefront. A welcome change from the garbage I've been reading.
When the World Cup comes in Africa, this incident will be brushed aside by a magnificent sporting event. The media today in their misleading attempts to entrench the world's views of Africa as a third world country riddled with poverty and fanatic militants will be swept aside. We need to focus on the cup. It is going to drastically change the world's perception of Africa.
Good work, John. The media is full of cliches and easy stories…an inveitable cause of fast approaching deadlines! Just glad quite a lot of people see through the tripe! Its hard to find a decent article these days! Do the media really report on the issues that are relevant to people's lives or really just report on a small number of celebrity facades, quirky tales and generic nonense. Rarely does any research or substantiated work go into considered articles. Headlines and simplicity is the order of the day.
"What BBC did is another form of propaganda of the west to make sure Africa remains the 'dark continent' as they have made the world to believe over the years"
Yeah, it was the BBC that murdered those footballers, berk.
As for being surprised and upset that the moronic Murdoch media reports thigs moronically, how does someone that naive get through the day?