The Togo national football team bus attack was a terrorist attack that occurred on 8 January 2010 as the Togo national football team traveled through the Angolan province of Cabinda on the way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations tournament, two days before it began. A little-known offshoot of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), a group promoting independence for the province of Cabinda, known as the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda Military Position (FLEC-PM), claimed responsibility for the attack. Bus driver Mrio Adjoua, the team's assistant manager Amlet Abalo, and media officer Stanislas Ocloo were killed, with several others injured. Secretary General of the FLEC-PM Rodrigues Mingas, currently exiled in France, claimed the attack was not aimed at the Togolese players but at the Angolan forces at the head of the convoy. Authorities reported two suspects were detained in connection with the attacks.
The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Portuguese: Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda, FLEC) is a guerrilla and political movement fighting for the independence of the Angolan province of Cabinda. Formerly under Portuguese administration, with the independence of Angola from Portugal in 1975, the territory became an exclave province of the newly independent Angola. The FLEC fights the Cabinda War in the region occupied by the former kingdoms of Kakongo, Loango and N'Goyo.
2010Jan, 8
Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attack a bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.
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Events on 2010
- 4Jan
Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens in Dubai - 11Mar
2010 Pichilemu earthquake
Economist and businessman Sebastián Piñera is sworn in as President of Chile, while three earthquakes, the strongest measuring magnitude 6.9 and all centered next to Pichilemu, capital of Cardenal Caro province, hit central Chile during the ceremony. - 3Apr
IPad (1st generation)
Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer. - 20Apr
Deepwater Horizon explosion
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months. - 31May
Gaza flotilla raid
Israeli Shayetet 13 commandos boarded the Gaza Freedom Flotilla while still in international waters trying to break the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip; nine Turkish civilians on the flotilla were killed in the ensuing violent affray.