EELAMDAILYNEWS

TOP NEWS STORY
NEWS
MEDIA


UlavanNews

Angola 'arrests' after Togo football team attack

Eingestellt voneelamnews வானதி Montag, 11. Januar 2010


Angolan authorities have arrested two people over a deadly attack on Togo's football team at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament, state media says.




Angola's National Radio reported that two suspects were arrested in the northern province of Cabinda - where Togo's team bus was attacked on Friday.



Cabinda has seen a low-level insurgency for many years.



Three Togolese officials were killed in Friday's attack and the team has gone home for three days of mourning.



The attack has overshadowed the start of the Cup of Nations - a showpiece event for both Angola, recovering from years of war, and African football ahead of the World Cup in June, which the continent is hosting for the first time.



The team was attacked by gunmen as their bus made its way from a training camp in the Republic of Congo to the venue in Cabinda City.



A faction of the Cabinda separatist rebel group, Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Flec), has claimed responsibility for the 30-minute machine-gun attack.



No risk-assessment



Questions are being raised about whether Angola should have chosen Cabinda to host any matches.



The province is separated from the rest of Angola by part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.







But Togolese officials have also been criticised for arranging to drive through areas where rebels were known to be active.



Africa Nations Cup official Virgilio Santos said all teams had been told explicitly not to travel to the tournament by road.



Alex Vines from the Chatham House think-tank told Reuters news agency that Togo had failed to assess the dangers.



"The signs were all there - the problem with the Togolese was they didn't do a proper risk-assessment," he said.



"It's the one part of Angola that's still dangerous."



Cabinda is hosting its first match later on Monday when Ivory Coast take on Burkina Faso.



The match between Togo and Ghana has been called off.



However, there have been some suggestions that Togo's team could return to play their other matches, after the end of three days of national mourning for the three football officials killed in Friday's attack.

0 Kommentare

Kommentar veröffentlichen

AdWords-Hilfe