Eritrean football team missing after match in Kenya

The Telegraph ^ | 12/15/2009 | Mike Pflanz in Nairobi

[bruinbirdman]

Entire Eritrean national football team has gone missing after failing to board a flight home following a match in Kenya.

Only the squad's coach and one other official arrived back in Eritrea after the team was knocked out in the quarter finals of the CECAFA tournament for east and central Africa.

The Eritrean national football team pose for a group photo before the start of the match against Tanzania,
at the Nyayo National stadium in Nairobi

The twelve players are believed to be hiding somewhere in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where there are tens of thousands who have fled Eritrea's government.

Nicholas Musonye, general secretary of CECAFA, said: "The tour guide waited for them in vain at the airport on Saturday when the team was (due to travel) back home.

"We think they are hiding somewhere with the intention of going somewhere, or just intending to remain here. We have alerted the authorities to help track them down."

Mr Musonye said the president of Eritrea's football association, Tesfaye Gebreyessus, had confirmed the team did not return after losing 4-0 to Tanzania.

Eritrean government rules state that any athlete competing abroad must lodge a bond of several thousand pounds before leaving the country to guarantee their return.

This is not the first time that Eritrean sportsmen and women have failed to find their flights home.

Britain granted six runners political asylum after they contacted Home Office representatives during a cross country championship meet in Edinburgh last year.

Four footballers with the Eritrean Red Sea club went missing in Nairobi in 2006 after an African Champions League game.

Critics point to repressive governance, compulsory military service and failure to tackle poverty as reasons for the growing exodus.

[beaversmom]

Near Ethiopia. I was never aware of it either until I had some Eritrean neighbors. The Christian Eritreans I have known are very nice people.

[abovethefray]

Chicago has 12 new cab drivers.

[seemoAR]

Check out what happens to Albinos in the home Country of our Black Messiah. A dismembered albino’s body can be sold for $75.000.

[GeronL]

I do not know why I remembered that.I bet Ethiopia doesn’t appreciate being landlocked. Do they have pay port fees and stuff to Eritrea?

[Ready4Freddy]

Eritrea has historically been separate from Ethiopia; the UN forced them into union with Ethiopia after WWII.

Well, forced them into continuing a forced union that had been in place since the mid-30s, when Italy defeated Ethiopia. Italy had ruled Eritrea since the late 1800s.