{"id":4867,"date":"2010-01-09T10:31:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-09T15:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=4867"},"modified":"2010-01-09T10:31:42","modified_gmt":"2010-01-09T15:31:42","slug":"three-dead-after-gun-attack-on-togo-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=4867","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Three dead&#8217; after gun attack on Togo football team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The death toll from an attack on Togo&#8217;s football team as they travelled in Angola has risen from one to three, reports say. <\/strong><em>(Photo: Emmanuel Adebayor, (right), escaped injury but was visibly shocked)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The team bus driver was killed in Friday&#8217;s attack, with the deaths of the assistant coach and a spokesman announced a day later.<\/p>\n<p>Two players were among nine people injured in the attack as the team headed to the Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n<p>The team withdrew from the competition, which is due to start on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The attack happened in Angola&#8217;s northern province of Cabinda on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Goalkeeper Kossi Agassa, who plays for French club Istres, told France-Info radio that the assistant coach and a spokesperson had died.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>CABINDA<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Cabinda.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4868\" title=\"Cabinda\" src=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Cabinda.png\" alt=\"Cabinda\" width=\"227\" height=\"171\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<address>Oil-rich province cut off from the rest of Angola by DR Congo<\/address>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<address>Flec rebels fought for region&#8217;s independence<\/address>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<address>Rebels laid down arms in 2006 but some unrest continues<\/address>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<address>Angola had dismissed concerns about staging games there<\/address>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Among the nine people injured were two players, an assistant manager, physio, goalkeeping coach and another coach.<\/p>\n<p>The attackers machine-gunned the vehicle after it crossed from the Republic of Congo into Angola&#8217;s oil-rich territory of Cabinda.<\/p>\n<p>Rebels who have been fighting for the region&#8217;s independence later said they had carried out the attack.<\/p>\n<p>The Angolan government called the incident an &#8220;act of terrorism&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Togo had been due to play their first cup game in Cabinda on Monday, but will now fly home on the presidential plane which is being sent to collect them.<\/p>\n<p>The Ghanaian team was also said to be considering pulling out.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC sports correspondent says Togo&#8217;s decision to withdraw is a crushing blow for the Angolan hosts, who hoped the tournament would show how far their country had progressed since the end of the civil war.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament&#8217;s organisers, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), said the team should have travelled by air rather than road.<\/p>\n<address>by BBC News<\/address>\n<p><strong><em>Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The death toll from an attack on Togo&#8217;s football team as they travelled in Angola has risen from one to three, reports say. (Photo: Emmanuel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[699,824,1],"tags":[2135,2128],"class_list":["post-4867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-sports","category-uncategorized","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-togo-football-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}