Angola strives to soldier on

Angola strives to soldier on

"Balls not bullets" was the call from Angola's head coach on a day when the future of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations veered from murky to uncertain, and back again.

Manuel Jose's meaning may be slightly skewed by the journalist's addiction to alliteration - the word he actually used  was "footballs" - but the organisers of this tournament have some brave decisions to make if anything is to be salvaged in sporting terms from Friday's human tragedy.

At least three of Togo's travelling party are reported to have been killed and others wounded in a machine gun attack on their bus in the northern enclave of Cabinda.

When Al Jazeera's team in Luanda arrived at the Angola squad's hotel on Saturday morning, word coming out of the north was that the Togo team would be staying in the contest, despite the trauma and injury to their players.

Angola coach Jose was unequivocal about the way forward.

"We must play, " he repeated. "We understand if Togo want to leave. But if we stop, we give these people reason to do this."

The coach may be right in that cowing to the tactics employed by FLEC, the separatist group claiming responsibilty for the attack, could only serve to rubber stamp them as a successful method of intimidation.

He is also correct that a team of young men put through such horror for the sake of a few football matches have every right to go home to mourn and bury their dead.

Throughout Saturday, conflicting news stories have veered between Togo staying and Togo going. Now, it appears that they really will go.

The Angolan organisers may view it differently after asking the team to remain under the promise of heavily-increased security.

But if the Togolese do depart, it will be with the best wishes and prayers of their opponents.

Our afternoon was spent dashing round Luanda, gathering contacts and finding locations for the TV crew to edit their work before feeding it back to our broadcast centre in Doha.

I met the Malawi team leaving their hotel for training, and the overwhelming response was that they wanted to stay in the tournament to show solidarity to Angola following its decades of civil war.

Coach Kinnah Phiri told me he had made a successful request to get more security for his team in Luanda even before news came through of Togo's ordeal, and it will be a hot issue for him again when Malawi travel to Cabinda for their final group match, against Mali, on January 18.

If the late news on Saturday is correct, Togo's withdrawal leaves Group B with only three teams.

Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana are apparently happy to continue playing, with no news yet of Burkina Faso's decision a day before the football begins.

It is hard to believe that problems don't lie ahead in the coming weeks.

But two days in the vibrant yet often desperately poor city of Luanda have done enough to convince that taking the Africa Cup of Nations away from Angola would be one tragedy too far.