Togo midfielder Moustapha Salifou, who plays for England’s Aston Villa, recalled the machine-gun attack on the team bus upon entering Angola for the Africa Cup of Nations: “It wasterrifying. The goalkeeper, [Obilade Kossi, who was seriously wounded] had been dancing and the press assistant was taking pictures of him. They were shot. I didn’t feel I would makeit off the bus alive. I thought everyone was going to die.”
Togo withdrew its team from the tournament because of the incident, in which two members of the team”s delegation and the busdriver were killed. “The attackers shot the driver,” Salifou said. “After two or three minutes we lay on the floor and everyone started crying. We couldn’t see anyone shooting because of the forest.It was difficult to say how close they were. After two minutes, we all lay on the floor and I was protecting myself.
“We shouted to each other every few minutes: ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’Our security guys started firing back and then one of them boarded the bus and told us not to scream. If we screamed they would know we were still alive. We had to be quiet. Everyone started prayingwhile shots flew over our heads and blood was on the coach floor.”
As for the African soccer confederation banning Togo for the next two Africa Cup of Nations tournament for withdrawing from thetournament, Salifou said, “They treat us like they have because we are a small country. If it had been Cameroon or the Ivory Coast, nobody is going to say they are banned from two African NationsCups.”