African Nations to go ahead

The Confederation of African Football have condemned the attack on the Togo squad in which team bus driver was killed but have…

The Confederation of African Football have condemned the attack on the Togo squad in which team bus driver was killed but have indicated the African Nations Cup will go ahead as planned.

The Togo team had just crossed the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo into the Angolan enclave of Cabinda when they came under machine gun fire.

Two players were among the injured in the attack, which lasted for around 15 minutes.

Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor later revealed the team would decide at a meeting whether to pull out of the tournament, which is due to start on Sunday, and admitted a lot of the players wanted to leave.

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CAF held an emergency meeting on Friday night and released a statement where they talked about taking "decisions to guarantee the smooth running of the competition".

The statement read: "The Confederation of African Football condemned the attack against the Togolese delegation convoy heading to Cabinda from Congo.

"The Angolan Football Association president, who is also the director general of the Local Organising Committee, Mr Justino Fernandes, informed the CAF Executive Committee that the incident happened 10 kilometres within the Angolan territory.

"The Angolan authority deployed immediately a team down there to assess the exact situation. According to the information provided by the director general, all injured people were taken to a hospital in Cabinda.

"On Saturday morning, 9 January 2010, an important delegation headed by the Angolan Minister on Internal Affairs, Ministers of Youth and Sports, members from the Prime Minister's office as well as a powerful delegation from CAF will be in Cabinda.

"The Angolan Prime Minister will meet on Saturday CAF President Mr Issa Hayatou to take decisions to guarantee the smooth running of the competition.

"The Confederation of African Football is terribly saddened by these events and expresses its total support as well as sympathy to the entire Togolese delegation."

Meanwhile, Angolan minister of youth and sports Goncalves Muandumba insists his country is committed to hosting a secure tournament and said they would step up security.

Muandumba told the BBC: "We are going to redouble our efforts.

"We are going to further reinforce all the mechanisms and continue to guarantee security and to create all the conditions which guarantee the success and organisation of the African Nations Cup.

"It was an unfortunate incident and we will find those responsible.''

Muandumba is set to be part of a delegation meeting with the Confederation of African Football on Saturday.