Togo team ready to leave after bus attack

(AFP: Paul Ellis)

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Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor said many of his team-mates wanted to leave the African Nations Cup after a gunman opened fire on the bus carrying the team to the tournament in Angola this morning (AEDT).

The Manchester City striker told BBC Radio Five Live in Britain he would convene a team meeting at which the squad would discuss whether to stay in Angola or return to their clubs.

Two players suffered bullet wounds and a driver was killed as shots were fired at the Togo team's vehicles as they crossed into the troubled Angolan province of Cabinda from Congo-Brazzaville.

"I think a lot of players want to leave, I don't think they want to be at this tournament any more because they have seen their death already," Adebayor told the BBC.

"Most of the players want to go back to their family. No-one can sleep after what they have seen today.

"They have seen one of their team-mates have a bullet in his body, who is crying, who is losing consciousness and everything.

"It is a football game and one of the biggest tournaments in Africa but I don't think people are ready to give their lives.

"I will talk with my team and we will take a decision that is good for our careers, our lives and our families. At the end of the day, it's only football.

Adebayor, who Angolan television showed looking dazed and in tears shortly after the attack.

"We are still in shock. If the security is not sure then we will be leaving tomorrow," he said.

The 25-year-old former Arsenal striker said the bus came under attack for 30 minutes.

"They shot dead our driver, there was no-one to drive the bus," he added.

"It was like we were living in a dream. I'm still under shock.

"I am one of those who carried the injured players into the hospital, that is when I realised what was really going on.

The two injured players were goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale and defender Serge Akakpo, squad member Thomas Dossevi said.

Togo was due to play its first match in the tournament against Ghana in Cabinda on Monday.

Last words

"All the players, everyone, was crying, calling their mums, crying on the phone, saying their last words because they thought they'd be dead," he said.

The separatist group the Front for the Liberation of Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened two days before the start of the African Nations Cup and five months before the World Cup finals in South Africa.

"We keep repeating (that) Africa, we have to change our image if we want to be respected and, unfortunately, that is not happening," added Adebayor.

"We have a chance to organise... one of the biggest tournaments in this world which is the World Cup, and can you imagine what is happening now? I'm very disgraced and for me ... it's unfair."