Shocking: Eritrea players missing after elimination from football tournament in Kampala

Seventeen players from the Eritrea football team and the team doctor are believed to have absconded after the team was eliminated at the ongoing East and Central Africa Football Associations CECAFA Tusker Senior Challenge Cup in the Ugandan capital Kampala. 

Kampala / NationalTurk- Those left behind are the head coach, Teklit Negash, two of his assistants and four other members of the playing body of the team.

“We don’t know where our brothers are, they left us on Sunday and we thought they are only taking a stroll in town and return but they have not” said team coach Teklit Negash.

One of the missing footballer on condition of anonymity confirmed to Radio France International RFI English Service that the squad is hiding some where in Kampala.

“Everybody has to stay in secure places because the Eritrean government is searching for us,” he said adding “The Eritrean embassy in Uganda is trying to find us”.

The Security agencies have launched a search for the missing players to capture them and deport them back to their country since they do not have legal permit to live in the country as at now.

Third time Eritrea national team absconds from camp after tournament

This is the third time that the Eritrean national team has chosen abscond from camp in an African nation after a football tournament.

In July last year, 13 Eritrean football players left camp like this and later sought for an asylum in Tanzania after a 2011 tournament, while 12 members of the national team similarly disappeared in Kenya and sought asylum there during a regional tournament in 2009.

Four Eritrean athletes also left their base and sought political asylum in Britain after the London Olympics games this year in London.

Reaction of opposition party in Eritrea

The Ethiopia-based Eritrean opposition group, Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) on Tuesday said that the latest defection of the Eritrean football team shows the level political oppression in Eritrea, as well as the nations worsening economic and social crises.

“The decision the players made in Uganda indicates how further the dictatorial regime in Asmara has lost the trust by the Eritrean people” RSADO official, Nessredin Ahmed Ali told local reporters

“We believe the players have sent a clear message to their people at home saying the time is now for all Eritreans to unite against President Issayas Afeworki’s regime and bring about democratic transition”.

Issaka Adams/NationalTurk Africa Sports News