Togo Goes Home?

While the Togo PM calls on the national soccer team to return home following the killing of three players the team wants to stay and compete in their honor. “Togo’s prime minister has insisted that the country’s football team must head home from the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola after three people were killed in a deadly attack by separatist fighters. Gilbert Houngbo’s remarks on Sunday came after the team said it would defy government calls for them to withdraw from the tournament. ‘If there is a team or persons present under the banner of Togo at the opening of the African Nations Cup this afternoon, it will be a false representation. The team must return today,’ Houngbo said. ‘We understand the position of the players who want to in some way avenge their dead colleagues, but it would be irresponsible for the Togolese authorities to allow them to continue.’ The team’s assistant coach and spokesman died of wounds sustained when the bus they were travelling in came under attack on Friday in Cabinda province, an oil-rich region separated from the rest of Angola by a thin strip of Democratic Republic of Congo. An Angolan bus driver was killed at the scene.”