TWO separatists who have been linked to last Friday’s deadly attack on the Togo national football team have been arrested, local authorities said yesterday.
The unidentified men are allegedly members of Flec, the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda forces, a separatist group that has claimed responsibility for the ambush in Angola’s northern Cabinda province, according to the oil-rich province’s chief prosecutor, Antonio Nito.
The arrests were announced shortly after the bodies of the dead and surviving members of the Togolese travelling party arrived back in Lome, Togo’s capital, yesterday to three days of mourning.
Togo’s national football team came under machine-gun fire as they travelled by bus from neighbouring Republic of Congo to the restive Cabinda province to play Ghana in their first African Cup of Nations game.
Three members of the travelling party – the bus driver, an assistant coach and a public relations officer – were killed and eight others were injured, including a number of players, in the gun battle between the separatists and Angolan security forces.
Goalkeeper Kodjovi “Dodji” Obilale was flown to South Africa to receive treatment for gunshot wounds to the lower back. Doctors said yesterday it was too soon to say whether he would play again.
Togo’s players had wanted to play in the tournament to honour the dead, but their government insisted it was not safe for them.
The detained separatists were captured on Sunday near the site of the ambush. A Flec leader in exile in France said yesterday his group had been targeting the Angolan troops escorting the Togolese team.
“In war, anything can happen, this is only the beginning,” Rodrigues Mingas told France-Info radio. On Sunday he warned there would be further attacks if the games went ahead. However, local Flec leaders have since denied any involvement in the attack, saying they have no problem with the tournament’s group games being played in the provincial capital.
The separatist struggle in Cabinda province began in 1975, when Angola won independence from Portugal. The province produces 60 per cent of the country’s oil.
At Sunday’s opening ceremony in Luanda, Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos said that “despite the terrorist attack, Cabinda will remain a hosting city . . . There is no need to be afraid.”
The attack in Angola has also called into question whether the security measures being put in place in South Africa for June’s football World Cup are adequate.
The head of South Africa’s local organising committee, Danny Jordaan, said linking what happened in Angola with the Fifa tournament did not make sense.
“If a bomb went off in Spain, do you think I should call England to ask about what the impact is on the Olympics England is organising?” he asked. “I think if something happens in France, you’ll know it happened in France, not elsewhere.”