Serious security concerns have been raised ahead of the upcoming AFCON tournament set to be hosted by Cameroon.
This comes from Simon Hughes at The Athletic, with the journalist noting that a handful of Premier League talents, including Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, could be put in danger due to escalating conflict in the region.
“Twenty-four teams will play matches in six venues across the country, one of which is in Bafoussam – close to the border of the Anglophone zone,” the reporter wrote. “Each of Senegal’s group games will be staged in the city and this will bring Liverpool’s Sadio Mane as well as Chelsea’s Edourd Mendy and Watford’s Ismailla Sarr (if fit) into close contact with an area of conflict.”
The danger hardly ends there as far as the club’s African contingent are concerned, with there being some concern over the potential safety of Mo Salah.
“The border with Nigeria has been described to The Athletic as ‘porous’ and there are sharp security fears about the staging of Nigeria’s group games in Garoua, an hour and a half drive into Cameroon,” Hughes added.
“One of their opponents is Egypt, for whom Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah is the captain.
“The Egyptians will not be staying in the region and instead will fly for each of their fixtures from Douala in South-West Cameroon.
“The news that Cameroon’s security services recently conducted anti-terror simulation exercises, including a mock attack on a stadium, was certainly not missed in Cairo.”
There’s an obvious benefit for a club like Liverpool when it comes to the potential postponement or cancellation of this year’s AFCON – selfishly, it would help our chances of domestic success having our top goalscorer and Mane available.
That being said, it’s far from being selfish to expect a high standard of player safety at a major international tournament, particularly in light of the additional COVID-19 concerns raised.
If there is deemed to be a genuine threat to that, we at the Empire of the Kop (with all due respect to the AFCON) can’t see how the competition in question can be allowed to go ahead.
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There is legitimate reason to cancel AFCON in Cameroon. There’s a serious civil war(5! years now), negligent attitude and effort from the government towards COVID. Above all, gruesome attacks by government forces on the anglophones, give the separatist targets reason to attack targets that will get them attention.
all what sadio mane said he is right for everything the should be no tournament in Cameroon people died everyday on the francophone and anglophone counties take that tournament somewhere else people life are more important than soccer some players are going to lost their life before the end of that tournament if the don’t take it somewhere else a hungry man is and angry man a word is enough for the wise that’s all I got to say
There are games being also played in Limbe, right in the conflict zone. Utter madness. What will the government of Cameroon tell the world if bombs go off and someone is hurt or killed? Nothing off course. They do not care as long as it suits their purpose.