Togo want to quit cup after attack: player

Togo midfielder Moustapha Salifou said Saturday the side wanted to quit the African Nations Cup and return home following a rebel ambush on the team convoy that killed two people.

Salifou, who plays for English Premier League club Aston Villa, said the team would seek permission from the Togo football federation and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to leave the tournament.

Speaking to the Aston Villa club website from the Togo team camp in the restive Angolan enclave of Cabinda, Salifou described how a player sitting in front of him was wounded in the terrifying 30-minute onslaught.

“I know I am really lucky. I was in the back of the coach with (striker) Emmanuel Adebayor and one of the goalkeepers. A defender who was sat in front of me took two shots in the back,” he told avfc.co.uk.

Togo’s assistant coach and its squad spokesman died Friday after hooded gunmen opened fire as the team’s buses crossed into Cabinda, according to the CAF.

The attack was claimed by the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), embroiled in a decades-long struggle for independence in the oil-rich territory.

“I am back at our camp in Cabinda with my team-mates but we all want to go home to Togo,” Salifou told his club’s website.

He said the team had decided together they no longer wanted to compete in the tournament.

“We must wait, however, so that we can speak to our federation president and some people from CAF and let them know that we don’t want to play. No one wants to play. We just want to go home,” he said.

“We have made our decision as players. We can’t play in these circumstances and we want to leave for home today.”

Salifou said the team’s security guards prevented more casualties by shooting back at the rebels.

“The shooting lasted half an hour and I could hear the bullets whistling past me. It was like a movie,” he said.

Salifou said he wept when he saw the injuries to Kodjovi Obilale Dodo, the goalkeeper who was flown to South Africa for emergency treatment.

“I don’t know how anyone could do this. We were looking forward to playing football and to being together as a team. None of us can play football now,” Salifou added.