Angola police hold 2 after Togo team attack

Police in Angola are holding two suspects in connection with the shooting of the Togolese football team which left two squad members dead, officials told AFP on Monday.

“Two assailants were captured on Friday, one a few minutes after the attack and the second at the border while crossing into Congo-Brazzaville,” said Macario Lembe, the deputy governor of Cabinda, an Angolan enclave inside the Democratic Republic of Congo where Friday?s attack took place.

“The first suspect was injured in his left thigh by police who responded when he opened fire from a tree at the Togolese bus,” said Lembe.

The two suspects belonged to a group of five people who launched the attack and were on Monday still in the hands of police.

The attack occurred as the team bus headed into the oil-rich province of Cabinda from the Republic of Congo where they were to take part in the Africa Cup of Nations tournament which opened Sunday.

Togo’s assistant coach Amalete Abalo and the team?s media spokesman Stanislas Ocloo died in Friday’s attack.

Nine other people were injured including Togo?s reserve goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale, who was flown to South Africa for surgery.

The Togolese team withdrew from the tournament following the attack and left Angola on Sunday evening to return home.

A splinter group of the independence movement FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Cabinda has been the scene of a long-running independence struggle. A peace deal was signed in 2006 but low-level insurgency continues in more remote areas of the province.

Calls to scrap the cup matches scheduled to be held in Cabinda, one of four host locations for the three-week competition, have been dismissed by the Angolan government, despite claims by FLEC that they may strike again.

Togo had been due to play Ghana in Cabinda on Monday evening but that match has now been cancelled.

However the match between Burkina Faso and tournament favourites Ivory Coast, the first of the tournament in Cabinda, is due to kick off at 1600 GMT Monday.