CABINDA - Togo's football team was readying to return home Sunday after a deadly rebel attack on their bus, the coach said, as Africa Cup of Nations organizers made a last-ditch bid to convince them to stay.
"The bus that should bring us to the airport is ready. The players are dressed and ready to leave," coach Hubert Velud told AFP by telephone from their base camp in the northern province of Cabinda.
"For the moment, it looks like we're leaving. But I can only speak in the conditional, because for the last three or four days everything changes every other hour," he said.
Angolan authorities and the Confederation of African Football were said to be in talks with Togolese officials in a last-minute effort to convince the team to stay, with the tournament's opening ceremony in Luanda less than an hour away.
"The three parties were meeting in a hotel in Cabinda," one witness told AFP.
Togo's government has ordered the team to return home, after separatist rebels ambushed their convoy on Friday as it entered the restive province from neighboring Congo-Brazzaville.
At least two members of the Togolese contingent -- an assistant coach and a team spokesman -- were killed and nine wounded when hooded gunmen opened fire on the team bus, sparking a 20 minute gunfight with security forces.
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