Aston Villa and Togo Star Moustapha Salifou Has Nightmares Over Shooting

Aston Villa's popular Togolese midfielder Moustapha Salifou admits he still has nightmares about that infamous shooting incident last month at the African Cup of Nations in Angola.

Talking to the media at the Aston Villa training ground, Bodymoor Heath, a somewhat emotional Salifou recalled the terrifying events .

He said: "Since I've come back, when I sleep now I know I'll wake up at three or four o'clock in the morning and dream that somebody is shooting at me.

"I feel bad for my teammates, our assistant coach and our press assistant who died, but it's life; I have to move on and forget it, but it's not easy."

And recalling the incident itself, Salifou continued: "After 15 minutes of the journey, they started to shoot.

"We had to lie on the floor and everyone was crying. We had to wait 30 minutes to travel. To be honest I was thinking everybody was going to die on the coach, but I see that God saved us.

"We were just lying on the floor and then we heard the gun shots passing over our heads. Before I came off the coach I had to crawl, and because I was crawling I could see the blood on the floor in the coach.

"We were evacuated in some small cars and after that we went to the hospital. When we were there in the daytime I saw our goalkeeper who called me over.

"He said, 'we are here for the football, but just look at what happened to me (he was shot). I have two kids and if I die, what is going to happen? Who is going to look after my kids?' At that point everyone started to cry."

A lot of controversy has been made following the incident over the security of Angola in hosting Africa's greatest sporting event , and especially Togo 's decision to travel through the Cabinda region by coach instead of fly to the tournament like all the other teams did.

However, Salifou revealed that the Togo side thought Angola was safe, and said they would have flown if they had any suspicion the region was dangerous.

The Premier League star added: "I think we were in the wrong place, but the Angolan government told us that they had security and everything was okay in their country.

"We had people tell us that everything was OK and that's why we took the road journey. If they had told us that it was not safe then we would have flown. You'd take the flight."

Like the majority inside world football, Salifou also believed the decision to ban Togo from the next two African Cup of Nations tournaments was unjustified.

Togo look set to appeal this decision from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), with Salifou convinced the Togolese team have been picked on because they are a small nation.

He remarked: "Nobody is going to say that Cameroon is banned from two African Cup of Nations. It's just because Togo is a small country."

Many have criticised the CAF for the shooting, with people saying the governing body was fully aware that the Cabinda region (where Togo were set to play their first game of the tournament) was a hot spot for violence and protest.

The attack was claimed by the FLEC-PM (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, Military Position), who are a group of freedom fighters who feel that Angola has no business being in the Cabinda region of the country.

A statement from the FLEC-PM on French radio read: "The CAF was warned repeatedly that this [Cabinda] was a country at war. They had documents explaining this but they wouldn't heed the warnings. They must take responsibility. We are not rebels, but a military and political movement originating in Cabinda. We are not rebels, but resistance fighters. We are fighting for its liberation."

Source: Aston Villa official club website