Angolan security forces seal off football village

Angolan security forces have sealed off the complex housing the football teams contesting the Africa Cup of Nations in restive Cabinda province, hoping to ward off any new separatist attack.

Since Friday’s attack on Togo’s squad that killed two people, little has changed in the small town of Cabinda. But the complex dubbed an “Olympic village”, now housing Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ivory Coast, has been cut off from the world.

Police and soldiers patrol the village’s perimeter on foot, in all-terrain vehicles, and on motorcycles. Highly visible special forces, known as “Ninjas” and feared throughout the province, wear sombre uniforms and carry AK-47s.

“Right now there are more police than normal,” said 29-year-old Jean-Baptiste Mataia. Normal in Cabinda means one soldier for every 10 residents. After the 2002 ceasefire that ended 27 years of civil war in the rest of the country, Angola deployed 30,000 soldiers to Cabinda to crush the separatist rebellion, according to Human Rights Watch.

CABINDA, Angola, Tuesday, AFP