Violence broke out in Abidjan on Monday evening after the country’s football team, the Elephant of Cote d’Ivoire lost 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea, to put their chances of qualifying to the knockout stages of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in jeopardy.
The two-time champions now must endure a nervy wait to determine if they will advance to the last 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams.
Despite a multitude of missed opportunities for the home team, Equatorial Guinea’s Emilio Nsue opened the scoring before the break, and Pablo Ganet unleashed a brilliant free kick after it. Two minutes before the end, Nsue, capped his performance with his fifth goal of the tournament.
THIS IS SAD!!
— MR OLAWALE QUADRY 🇳🇬 (@QualityQuadry) January 23, 2024
Frustrated Cote D'ivoire 🇨🇮 fans yesterday destroying properties & attacking people after the heavy loss to Equatorial Guinea 🇬🇶.
This is utterly unacceptable.
CAF to sanction them, they with heavy fine & next game should be behind closed doors if qualify. pic.twitter.com/TTLQ9Z3Pd9
In a video seen by Completesports.com on social media, the body of a bus apparently forced to be abandoned as a result of the violence was riddled with holes that looked like it was pelted by stones.
C'est également la faute aux influenceurs camerounais que les supporters ivoiriens on saccagé leurs propres biens ? @unbamileke je m'adresse spécialement à toi et à tous ceux qui pensent comme toi pic.twitter.com/POESqlQF38
— Greg ONDOBO® (@OndoboGreg) January 22, 2024
The windows of the bus were also shattered.
Another video showed things being burnt in the streets of Abidjan as police could be seen converging around the area.
It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries or fatalities following the mayhem.
5 Comments
I even hear say for the past 8 hours dem seize light..
But meanwhile pinick come watch the game yesterday o..
I for tear am beating if I sit am near am
You have not come to terms with Rohr sacking……wake up and smell the coffee my guy.
Ivory Coast performance yesterday was totally unacceptable and losing scandalously in front of your home fans add more salt to the injury. The action of the fans too was totally babaric and condemnable. CAF should impose stiffer sanctions and perhaps make their next match to be played behind closed-door incase they qualified as one of the 4 best losers.
I think Ivory Coast can still qualify because of Ghana’s elimination.
They can still go as far as the final. Trust my words.
I thought only Nigerians have this kind of mind