allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Warriors Arrive in Guinea (Page 1 of 2)

Zimbabwe's road-weary Warriors flew into this chaotic and tense coastal city on the shores of the Atlantic, almost 24 hours after they left home, to begin yet another campaign to dine with the aristocrats of global football when the 2010 World Cup bandwagon explodes across the Limpopo in just two years' time.

A long three-legged transcontinental trip that took them to Johannesburg, Dakar in Senegal and finally into this rundown Guinean capital badly crying for a facelift, left the Warriors drained both physically and emotionally by the time they touched down here close to midday at home yesterday.

It was a trip full of drama with the Warriors delegation being told on arrival in Dakar -- shortly after midnight yesterday -- that their scheduled flight to Conakry was unlikely to take off because of unrest here in the Guinea capital torched by a rebellion by some soldiers demanding their outstanding salaries.

Immigration and security officials at the Leopold Senghor International Airport in Dakar advised the Warriors shortly after their arrival that the volatile political situation in Conakry had already forced the cancellation of all the day's flights scheduled for Guinea.

The Warriors were also informed that the Guinea national team, whom they are scheduled to play here on Sunday in the first match of a battle for places at the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup finals, was also stranded in Dakar with no flights to take them to their homeland.

Apparently the Sylie Nationale -- as the Guinea national team is affectionately known by its fans here -- had been holding a training camp in France and were heading home for their showdown with the Warriors when they were caught in the drama unfolding in their homeland.

Flights coming in and out of Conakry had been suspended by the time the Sylie Nationale and the Warriors arrived in Dakar.

Security personnel at the airport even joked that the best way out of the crisis would be for Fifa to order the game between Guinea and Zimbabwe to be played on neutral soil in Dakar since both teams were now virtually stranded in the Senegalese capital.

As the news broke among the Warriors of the security concerns surrounding the final leg of their trip -- and the possibility that they could be stranded in Senegal for some days -- silence descended on the group as the reality of the situation confronting them began to sink.

Having already spent about 10 hours flying from home, the weary Warriors trooped into the transit lounge and before long the whole squad was asleep.

The break of dawn brought some good news with Air Senegal International officials advising the Zimbabwe delegation that they had been in contact with their counterparts in Conakry and passenger flights had been cleared to resume operations.

Still there was concern among some Warriors, who were worried that the political situation could deteriorate rapidly, either while they were already airborne or after their arrival here, and they could find themselves caught in a vicious battle they don't understand.

But having come this far to fight for the cause of their fatherland, the majority of the Warriors felt they could not turn back and the delegation boarded an Air Senegal Boeing 737-700 passenger jet for the one-hour flight down the coast to Conakry.

They arrived here to be welcomed by a sight they had all feared -- dozens of armed soldiers manning the airport.

Then there was the intense heat and humidity to contend with -- temperatures yesterday soared to more than 36 degrees Celsius.

Outside the airport were groups of locals who appeared oblivious of the political drama that has been unfolding in their country and their apparent relaxation appeared to cool the nerves of the Warriors.

The national team was then bundled into a small minibus which headed straight to their hotel -- the Mariador Palace -- right on the shores of the northern tip of the Atlantic Ocean in a downtown part of this city.

But if they thought that the worst was over now that they were in the comfort of their hotel, the Warriors were mistaken.

The delegation was again made to wait for more than two hours because their rooms were being cleaned.

Hotel director Almamy Saidou said the cancellation of all the flights on Wednesday meant that some of their guests did not check out as originally scheduled and this left them with a problem regarding the rooms.

Once the rooms had been sorted out, it was time for the delegation to check in.

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine


Use our pull-down menus to find more stories

Today's Most Active Stories