AFTER A day of fraught negotiations, Togo last night flew home from the Africa Cup of Nations following Friday's deadly gun attack but left the door open for a return later in the tournament. As Angola and Mali kicked off in an eventful opening game, which was drawn 4-4, Togo headed for the airport in the northern province of Cabinda after being ordered to return by their prime minister, who sent the presidential plane to pick the players up.
"Anybody that is involved in security matters will tell you that it would be irresponsible to just pretend that nothing has happened and just let the show go on," Togo's prime minister, Gilbert Houngbo, told the BBC World Service. "Security is non-negotiable."
The Togo striker and captain, Emmanuel Adebayor, told reporters at Cabinda airport: "We have to mourn our dead, we're going back to do so. We're very sad."
But even as the Togolese plane prepared to leave, a spokesman for the squad said a final decision on whether the team would quit the competition altogether had not been made. "We're still talking with the players, no decision has been made yet. Everything is possible," he said.
The Togolese sports minister, Christophe Tchao, added to the uncertainty by saying Togo had asked the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to find a way for the team to rejoin the competition later.
"We have ordered a three-day mourning," Tchao said. "The players are leaving with the bodies of their fallen brothers and we've asked the CAF to find an arrangement so we can catch up later."
Adebayor had earlier claimed his team were willing to stay but the decision appears to have been taken at Houngbo's prompting, who maintained the side could not play while the goalkeeper Dodji Obilale remains in intensive care after the team bus was ambushed in Cabinda, killing three people.
"If some people present themselves under the Togolese flag, it will be a false representation," he said.
"The head of state [ Faure Gnassingbe] has decided we will return," Adebayor told a French radio station.
"There was a meeting between players yesterday and we said we were still footballers. We all decided to play to honour those who died. Unfortunately the head of state and the country's authorities have decided otherwise.
"It was also our families 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."
Having said on Saturday they were pulling out, Togo's players had had an abrupt volte-face in the early hours of yesterday morning. Then after Huangbo's intervention the players decided again that they should leave Angola.
Adebayor said he had received support from members of the Ghana and Ivory Coast teams who were also drawn in the group based in Cabinda and condemned CAF for its response.
"If we speak of the dead, the competition should have been cancelled," he said. "But CAF has decided otherwise. We're going back and we wish good luck to those who remain, especially to Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Ghana."
Although there was a last-ditch summit between the governments of Togo, Angola, Namibia and Botswana - the latter two in the hope that in extremis they could send a team to replace Togo - it seemed more likely that the group would start with only three teams.
"We know they have had some problems with secessionists," said the president of the Burkinabe FA, Theodore Sawadogo. "But we have been assured of our safety."
FLEC, the body that claimed responsibility for the attack, warned that it was the first in a planned wave of strikes but the Angolan prime minister, Antonio Paulo Kassoma promised increased security at all venues.
The cup got off to a sensational start last night as the hosts, leading 4-0 with 16 minutes to go, were pegged back by Mali in a pulsating 4-4 draw in front of a 50,000 crowd in Luanda. A spectacular fireworks display lit up the stadium, as fans observed a minute of silence as a sign of respect for the gun attack victims.
Guardian Service
