Friday, January 8th, 2021
Cowardly attack eleven years ago
Terror against Togo’s national team
As the bus of the Togolese national soccer team crossed the border into Angola, a huge machine gun fire broke out. Masked attackers from a rebel group shoot for minutes. The extent of the attack eleven years ago is absolutely devastating.
Brutal attack on the national football team from Togo: On January 8, 2010, two days before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, strangers shot at the fully occupied team bus. The extent of the attack was devastating, the bus driver, the press officer and an assistant coach died and seven other members of the delegation were injured.
The cowardly machine gun attack occurred in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda. Luckily, professional Assimiou Toure from Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen sat in the penultimate row of the bus, he was uninjured. Three days later, Togo would play its opening game against Ghana in Cabinda.
“We had just crossed the border after we had finished with the formalities. Then machine gun fire broke out,” said Thomas Dossevi, describing the incident. The professional from FC Nantes said: “The attackers were masked and armed to the teeth. We were shot like dogs. We crouched under the seats for 20 minutes. The police fired back. It was terrible and a shock.”
President brings the team back
The “Liberation Front for the Independence of Cabinda” (FLEC) later claimed responsibility for the attack. In the oil-rich Cabinda exclave, which borders the Republic of the Congo to the north and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, rebels had fought for independence for years.
The team finally decided not to start at the 27th Africa Cup. Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo ordered the homecoming. “The team has to leave and return to Togo immediately. If players or other people fly the Togolese flag during the opening ceremony, they are not representing our country,” said Houngbo, proclaiming three days of national mourning.
The terrible events also cast a huge shadow on the World Cup, which was to take place in South Africa the following summer. “It’s all sick. I wonder how they want to handle security at the World Cup,” German goalkeeper Rene Adler asked himself at the time. However, the bad premonitions should not come true. The first World Cup finals on African soil six months later were spared terrorist attacks.
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