African Nations Cup to go ahead: CAF

The African Nations Cup will go ahead as planned despite Friday’s deadly attack on the Togo team bus which killed the driver and injured nine, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirmed to AFP.

“Our great concern is for the players, but the championship goes ahead” Souleymane Habuba, CAF’s communications director, said.

Tragedy struck the build-up to the Nations Cup which starts here on Sunday when gunmen fired on the Togo team as they crossed the border from Congo-Brazzaville to the troubled province of Cabinda.

The head of the Togolese football federation reported the driver had been killed and nine other passengers injured in the attack claimed by the armed wing of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC).

Habuba reported that CAF’s vice-president had set off from the Angolan capital of Luanda to Cabinda to find out at first hand what had occurred.

“We need to know all the facts, we haven’t got them all yet. We can’t give a full reaction from reports that we have got from the media.”

Habuba did, however, question why Togo, in contrast to the other 15 teams making their way to Angola for the biennial competition, had elected to travel by road rather than flying.

“CAF’s regulations are clear, teams are required to fly rather than travel by bus.”

Meanwhile, the African division of the player union FIFPro called on organisers to “leave no stone unturned, assuming the Cup can go ahead, to ensure the security of players and those accompanying them.”

“Football is an instrument of peace, a festival,” said FIFPro. “It should not be used as a vehicle for mindless violence, whatever the claims of those who seek to take it hostage” for their own ends.