“I was dreaming big and ready to play in a major tournament for my country but two bullets tore those dreams to pieces. In a split second, all my dreams were completely taken away from me.”
Playing for GSI Pontivy in the French Amateur Championship, the fourth tier of French football, Kodjovi Obilale got an opportunity to star in the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola as Togo’s first-choice goalkeeper. This was supposed to be his big break.
As the team bus headed to the training base in Lubango a few days before the tournament, it was shot at by gunmen in the northern Angolan province of Cabinda.
The ambush was carried out by separatist rebels from the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, fighting for independence of the oil-rich province from the rest of Angola.
“We were all excited, looking forward to a great tournament and suddenly there were gunshots,” Obilale told Al Jazeera.