Togo withdrew from the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament and its players reluctantly left Angola on Jan. 10, two days after a deadly ambush on the team bus killed three and injured eight.

It took a call from Togo's president to persuade the players to leave, after they said they wanted to stay and compete in honor of the assistant coach, team spokesman and Angolan bus driver who died in the Jan. 8 attack.

Togo's Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo said Angola had not done enough to protect the team after the attack in Cabinda — the oil-rich region in northern Angola that has been plagued by unrest.

Separatists argue that Cabinda, which is cut off from the rest of Angola by a strip of Congo, is distinct culturally and historically. The Angolan government rejects such claims and its decision to stage part of the tournament in Cabinda — building a new stadium there for the games — reflects its determination to keep control of the region.

Angola has been struggling to climb back from decades of violence and the government was banking on the tournament as an opportunity to show the world it was on the way to recovery.

The Jan. 8 shooting is the second major attack on a sports team in less than a year. Several players were injured and six police officers were killed when gunmen opened fired on the Sri Lanka cricket team's bus in Lahore, Pakistan, in March 2009.

The violence in Angola comes five months before the World Cup opens in South Africa, the first to be held on the continent.