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An assistant coach, press officer and driver
were killed. Two players were shot and injured in Friday's attack.
The Angolan government and tournament
officials had been pressing Togo to stay for their group games in
Cabinda.
Togo government minister Pascal Bodjona said
the team was coming home because the players were in a state of shock.
He added: "We cannot in such a dramatic
circumstance continue in the Africa Cup of Nations."
Togo were due to play Ghana in their opening
match on Monday. Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso are the other teams in
Group B.
The Confederation of African Football (Caf)
said late on Satuday that it understood Togo's decision but that the six
other matches scheduled to be played in Cabinda would go ahead as
planned.
Angola's prime minister Paulo Kassoma met
with African football officials in Luanda to offer reassurances on the
safety of the players on the eve of the tournament.
"The prime minister considers the incident in
Cabinda as an isolated act and repeated that the security of Togo's team
and the other squads is guaranteed," his office said in a statement.
But his efforts were in vain, with the
Togolese government later telling its team to leave Angola.
Earlier, Togo coach Hubert Velud told French
radio station RMC that he thought consideration should be given to
cancelling the entire tournament.
"We can at least pose that question," he
said. "It's an act of barbarism while we are here to celebrate African
football."
In an interview with a French radio station,
Togo's first-choice goalkeeper, Kossi Agassa, said none of his team
wanted to remain in the tournament.
"None of the team is ready to play, we're all
devastated, everyone wants to go and see their family," he said.
"We came here to take part in a festival of
African football, but it's as if we've gone to war."
Aston Villa's Togolese midfielder Moustapha
Salifou was thankful for the presence of the security team after he
emerged unscathed from the incident, which happened after the team had
entered Angola from neighbouring Congo, but he said he felt lucky to be
alive.
He told Villa's website: "Our security people
saved us. They were in two cars, about 10 of them in total, and they
returned fire.
"The shooting lasted for half an hour and and I could hear the bullets
whistling past me. It was like a movie. Next Page...
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