Togo’s national football team pulled out of the African Cup of Nations on Saturday after three people were killed when the team bus came under fire as it traveled through a section of Angola plagued by separatist violence.
Manchester City, the team of top player Emmanuel Adebayor who is also captain of the Togo team, said the team was withdrawing from the continent-wide tournament.
A goalie for Togo’s national soccer team said on French radio that the death toll from the attack has risen from one to three.
Goalie Kossi Agassa – who plays for French club Istres – told France-Info radio by phone that a Togo assistant coach and a spokesperson have also died. Agassa said that a second team goalie was badly wounded and transported urgently to South Africa for treatment.
Dr. Fraser Lamond of medical assistance provider International SOS told The Associated Press on Saturday that it had been asked to provide two air ambulances.
But before they landed in Cabinda on Saturday morning, one of the patients died. Lamond said that another man was due to arrive at Johannesburg’s Milpark hospital on Saturday afternoon.
Lamond said that his “condition is serious but stable and he will be going to a trauma facility.” Lamond didn’t know if the man was a player.
Angola’s Information Minister Manuel Rabelais said Friday that eight team members and one Angolan were injured. In Togo, the government said the Angolan driver was killed.
Togo’s bus in a convoy from Congo was 10km across the border in Angola when it came under fire. The bus driver died in the 30-minute ambush, according to Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor, who was not hurt.
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