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Lagos — Gunmen yesterday opened fire with machine guns at a bus carrying Togo's national football team players and officials to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, wounding many of them.
Officials say the shooting occurred in the Angolan oil-rich territory of Cabinda, where rebels have been fighting for independence.
Togo is due to play its first Nations Cup game in Cabinda against Ghana on Monday. Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast are the other teams in the group.
However, it is feared that Togo is likely to pull out of the 16-nation tournament following injuries to many of its players.
The Angolan government called the incident an "act of terrorism."
Manchester City star striker Emmanuel Adebayor was on the bus but was unhurt. In a statement, Manchester City said Adebayor had been "shaken by the terrible event but was unharmed."
Aston Villa also confirmed that its 26-year-old midfielder Moustapha Salifou was "shaken but okay" following the attack.
The bus was travelling to Cabinda (in Angola) from the squad's training ground in the Republic of Congo when the shooting happened.
"This was an act of terrorism," Cabinda Affairs Minister Bento Bembe told Reuters news agency.
Competition officials said they did not know that the Togolose team had decided to drive directly to Cabinda.
They said they had expected the squad first to fly to the Angolan capital, Luanda, and from there to Cabinda.
Togo's striker Thomas Dossevi told France's RMC Radio that several players were "in a bad state" after the attack.
He described the gunmen as hooded and "armed to the teeth." Dossevi said the team had just completed border checks when the firing started.
"We were machine-gunned, like dogs at the border with Angola. I don't know why. I thought it was some rebels. We were under the seats of the bus for 20 minutes, trying to get away from the bullets. There was a lot of blood on the ground," Dossevi said.
The identities of those injured, including team staff, are not known.
Midfielder Alaixys Romao said Togo is now likely to pull out of the 16-nation tournament.
"No-one wants to play. We're not capable of it. We're thinking first of all about the health of our injured because there was a lot of blood on the ground," he said.
Another player told French news agency AFP: "We were surrounded by the police and everything was in order. Then there was heavy firing and the police fired back.
"You would have thought we were in a war. We were shocked. When we got out of the bus we asked ourselves, why us? We don't really want to play in the Africa Cup of Nations again."
Romao said the players had feared the worst and he believed Togo was now likely to pull out of the tournament.
"We're not thinking yet of what could happen. But it's true that no one wants to play. We're not capable of it.
"We are thinking first of all about the health of our injured because there was a lot of blood on the ground. For the moment, there is not much news because they have been taken to different hospitals," said the Grenoble player.
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This is bad. Very bad. The sad thing is that, South Africa 2010 is being linked to this incident. Tragedy beyond belief.
This is putting the continent in a dark spot and giving some ignorant people in CNN to blow things beyond proportion. Africa will successfully host 2010 world cup. All rebel groups should know that you cant get popularity through attacks like this, it only diminish your influence, these are very innocent people, and to say the least, footballers!
The only real threat to the World Cup is Zimbabwe and Al Queda. Zuma can sort out Zimbabwe in a week if he wanted to. Lets face it Al Queda is one bright boy and not dumb enough to raise the Anger of Africa so the world cup should be safe O.B
It is understandable - but regretted - because of the terrible war by the Angola regime on the people of Cabinda for 35 years!. Incredible crimes are committed against Cabinda. No human rights there, or in the rest of Angola.
The Angola regime is the worst kind you can think of. Always at the bottom of corruption and good governance lists. Never any transparency of the use of huge oil income. Bribing nationally and internationally people to keep silent of the terrible regime! The Angolan regime is enemies of it own people. And with a "president" of Angola put in place by the late leader of the Soviet Union in 1979 Mr. Leonid Bresjnev! Can you believe, 30 years as "president" but never elected!
Angola got independence 1975 but there have been only two, so called, parliamentary "elections", in 1992 and 2008. 1992 ending with thousands of people from the opposition murdered in large scale massacres all over the country, and in the 2008 "elections" the Angolan self-proclaimed government prohibited any national or international election observers to oversee or observe the important tabulation of the election results, in which the regime gave it self 81 % of the votes. The 2008 elections were a complete scandal!
The football cup in Angola should be boycotted by all teams and decent people!
F rom recent histo4ry of Angola, the counry's external destabilizing force, supplying arms to Cabinda, is obvious. But the country's leader should act positively as Vladimir Putin did to bring peace to Russia.