Togo lodge legal complaint after rebel bus attack

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PARIS, Feb 4, 2010 (AFP) - Togo has lodged a legal complaint against the African Football Confederation (CAF) and a rebel group behind a deadly attack on the team as it travelled to the African Nations Cup in Angola last month, legal sources said Thursday.

Togo's national football team was forced to quit the 2010 African Nations Cup on January 10 after two members of their delegation were shot and killed during an ambush as it arrived in the restive Angolan enclave of Cabinda.

As Togo grieved the deaths and amid unheeded calls for CAF to cancel the tournament, Togo government officials ordered the team back to the country.

That decision not to participate, however, ultimately led CAF president Issa Hayatou to ban Togo from the 2012 and 2014 editions of the tournament because of "governmental interference".

CAF's decision was met with widespread astonishment in Luanda and elsewhere.

The state of Togo and relatives of the two victims are now plaintiffs in a suit targeting the CAF and one of the two rebel groups which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Relatives of the two victims hold the CAF responsible for "failing to assure the safety of the team from injury or death".

The state of Togo holds the FLEC-PM (Forces for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda-Military Position) responsible for "acts of terrorism", "assassination and attempts to assassinate".

Legal sources said Thursday the court would now have to determine if it had the legal grounding to act upon the complaint, given that no French citizens were among the victims.