Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor has told French radio his team will head home from the African Nations Cup on Sunday afternoon on the advice of the Togolese government. A number of players had been quoted in the French media saying they were keen to play on as a mark of respect to those killed and injured in Friday's gun attack in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda.
But Togolese prime minister Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo ordered the team must return today.
The players have now agreed and Togolese president Faure Gnassingbe has dispatched his presidential plane to collect them.
Adebayor told French radio station RMC: "The head of state (Gnassingbe) has decided we will return.
"There was a meeting between players yesterday (Saturday) and we said we were still footballers.
"We all decided to do something good for the country and play to honour those who died.
"Unfortunately, the head of state and the country's authorities have decided otherwise. We will pack up and go home."
Adebayor's comments come after Houngbo announced the government's decision earlier today.
The Togolese prime minister told
L'Equipe
: "We understand the approach of players who wanted to express a way to avenge their fallen comrades, but it would be irresponsible on the part of the authorities to let them continue.
"The team must return today. The government's decision is unchanged.
"It is a conscious decision since Friday. If a team or a person present themselves under the banner of Togo, it would be a false representation."
Manchester City striker Adebayor revealed a conversation he held with Gnassingbe this morning had proved decisive.
"That's what made the difference," he said. "It was also our families and loved ones at home who called us. They told us we could continue if we wished but that it is the authorities who have the information.
"Is there going to be another attack? Nobody knows. If they asked us back (home), maybe they received a call saying that the threat was not passed.
"We are obliged to respect that. The head of state knows what is good for our careers and our lives."
He added: "The presidential plane will pick us up.
"He told me that the plane had left Lome. There are about two hours flying between Lome and Cabinda. We will leave in two or three hours."
The Togo players had voted to continue in the tournament despite an earlier decision to withdraw as the death toll from the attack reportedly rose to three.
Adebayor admitted he had wanted to play on despite fear of another attack, but accepted the authorities knew best.
"This Friday at 14:30, we were all dead on that bus," he said. "We sent our last messages to our families. We called our family to say our last words.
"I told myself: 'If you're still there on the ground in Angola, why not (play in) the CAN?'
"Today, the authorities decided we should return, so we will return."
Adebayor revealed he has spoken to members of the Ivory Coast and Ghana camps - two of Togo's Group B opponents - who appeared to back a boycott but now seem set to continue.
"As captain and spokesman of Togo, I spoke with all authorities. I told them to take the measures necessary for our security.
"I spoke with the captain and the Ivory Coast delegation and with Ghanaians. They expressed their support by saying they were ready to leave the competition if we did.
"(But) at the end of the day, we realised that they were ready to continue. It is still a continent where a World Cup will take place in South Africa.
"If we speak of the dead, the competition should have been cancelled. But CAF (Confederation of African Football) have decided otherwise.
"We're going back and we wish good luck to those who will remain, especially to Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Ghana.
"What I have told their leaders is that they may be attacked at any time in Cabinda. I hope they will be cautious."
Aston Villa midfielder Moustapha Salifou was with Adebayor on the bus, while a host of Premier League clubs, including Chelsea and Arsenal, have players competing at the tournament.
Villa manager Martin O'Neill insisted his club will do everything to help midfielder Moustapha Salifou recover psychologically from the gun attack, in which he was unharmed.
O'Neill told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme: "Something like that is going to live with him for a very long time, if not for the rest of his life. It was very, very harrowing and he is actually a very sensitive lad.
"He's very popular in the dressing room. He's very quiet. He's got a wry sense of humour, but he's an exceptional fellow and I think he will take this very badly indeed.
"We have a number of people at the football club who I think can help him. Some of the players who are quite close to him will give him as much counselling as possible but I'm hoping in time he will be able to settle down and get back to playing."
Bayer Leverkusen's Assimiou Toure earlier revealed he could only pray he and his colleagues would get out alive.
The 22-year-old told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper: "It was horrible. I was scared to death.
"The driver and two others on the bus were hit in their lower body and others got bullets in their calf.
"They have undergone surgery and are in intensive care.
"Nothing happened to me. Thank God I was sat in the penultimate row at the back. They shot at the front of the bus."
The Togo team had ignored warnings to arrive in Angola by plane and instead travelled by coach with an army escort.
The escort, according to Toure, prevented a massacre.
"We were coming from the Congo and were only about 10 minutes away from the Angolan border with our two buses," he explained. "In the middle of the forest, we were suddenly ambushed and shot at.
"We were fortunate - they absolutely peppered the first bus with bullets, probably thinking that we were all sitting in there, but that was only our luggage.
"The whole thing lasted about half an hour. We had an escort and they shot back and kept the attackers in check and called for assistance.
"If the army had not been there, then none of us would be alive now.
"All I could do was jump under my seat and pray."
The separatist group The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which were reported to have claimed responsibility for the attack, have now denied they carried it out.