Before the Africa Cup of Nations, Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), was asked by this reporter whether he could guarantee, after the unprecedented loss of life and injuries at the Olembe Stadium in Yaoundé, Cameroon, during the tournament in 2022, that no similar incidents would occur in Ivory Coast.
“Whatever happens at the Africa Cup of Nations, as the president of Caf I am responsible,” Motsepe said. “Having to look into the eyes of the victims, and their families, after the tragedy [in Yaoundé], is one of the hardest things that I have to do in my life … I have had extensive discussions and consultations with president [Alassane] Ouattara and the Ivorian authorities, to ensure that people are safe and secure during this tournament.”
That assurance provides little comfort for Alex Cizmic.
Cizmic, an Italian journalist who has written for the Guardian, was travelling with colleagues from Yamoussoukro to Abidjan in a shuttle bus operated by the tournament’s organising committee, after watching a group game between Guinea and Senegal, when it crashed into a concrete barrier on the motorway at about 2am on Wednesday.
“I was not feeling safe [during the journey] because the driver was driving very fast,” Cizmic says. “Taxi drivers and bus drivers, as far as I have seen here, just like I saw in Cameroon, don’t drive very safely … I was just trying to cope with that and saying to myself that we had almost arrived [in Abidjan] and should be calm, when I heard someone shout ‘be careful, be careful …’ as the bus was crashing into the wall, on the right side of the highway.
“I told myself: ‘I hope it will stop, I hope it will stop …’. Fortunately for me, the driver tried to regain control of the vehicle, so I fell into the middle of the bus and that kind of saved me, because I was sitting beside the volunteer [who was serving as the chaperone] who got trapped after the crash.
“If I had been on my seat, I would have been hurt much more … I have an injury on my right hand, which is swollen, so I cannot work or write. I have minor injuries on my head, my legs and my left arm but I am generally OK. It was a shock and I still have to process [everything].”
A quick update: I eventually suffered a fracture on the 4th and 5th metacarpals of my right hand. It's not so serious, but I will have my arm in plaster for around two weeks. This won't stop me to cover the AFCON. I will find a way to keep working.#AFCON2023 #CAN2023 pic.twitter.com/G32gMMj9ub
— Alex Čizmić (@AlexCizmic) January 25, 2024
The Danish journalist Buster Emil Kirchner says: “The driver took so many risks with us during this journey. Even though most of us were sleeping we could sense how he was using the brakes, spontaneously on many occasions … We were just outside Treichville, when the accident happened.
“I was on the front seat just behind the driver, and the first thing that came to my mind was that we should get out of the bus [through the windows] before it starts burning. Most of us got out of the bus within seconds and began checking ourselves to see if we were OK.
“We could only get out of the bus through the windows, so we had to help one another to do that. The windows were completely smashed, so there were just holes in the bus. We went to the hospital [in Treichville] after some confusion outside. As a friend of Alex, I went to support him there, until we went back home.”
Satish Sekar, a British passenger on the bus, has his arm in a sling. “I had an X-ray done on my arm,” he says. “Nothing broken, but it’s going to take about a week or two for it to get better.”
Caf is yet to release a statement on the accident but a highly placed official within the organisation told the Guardian that the journey took place outside the safety agreements reached with the tournament’s local organising committee (LOC). The three-hour journey of 234km , with no overhead lights on the motorway, began at about 11pm.
“We had told the LOC that no bus returning to Abidjan from Yamoussoukro should leave after 8pm, so it was surprising to hear that this journey occurred at all,” the official said. “We are glad that no fatalities occurred. It has been reiterated by us, in no uncertain terms, that no bus journey is to be made under such circumstances in the future. It is not safe for people to be travelling on that road at that time of night.”
An Ivorian with knowledge of the workings of the LOC, who declined to be named, said: “The experience and safety standards of the drivers has not been taken seriously enough [by tournament organisers]. Some of the people engaged to drive buses are people that drive gbakas and woro-woros [old cars and buses not properly licensed for public transport]. Some are not well-trained for the jobs they are doing. This accident could have ended up in a real disaster. We are fortunate things did not end up a lot worse.”
