sulawesigirl4
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
On Sunday night there was a World Cup qualifying match held here in Bamako, Mali against Togo. We had been warned ahead of time to not be anywhere near the stadium as big matches like that have been known to get a bit rowdy in the past. My boyfriend and I went out into town to get some money at the ATM machine only to find that it was not working (welcome to Africa) and so returned home on public transport. A guy sitting next to us was listening to the game on the radio and the score was 1-0 in Mali's favour. By the time we got to a restaurant near our house, thinking we would catch the tail-end of the game on the TV, the coverage had been pulled. Guys in the restaurant said that the score was now 1-2 and that fans in the stands had started throwing stuff onto the pitch and begun to rush the field. And then the national TV station stopped showing the match. We all talked about how stupid it was for "fans" to get so riled up as to do things like that, but I didn't know the full extent until I went into work on Tuesday. It seems that it sparked a full-scale riot that saw hundreds of shops and bars smashed, looted and burned, people robbed in the streets, cars burned, roads blocked, and traffic lights destroyed. On my way to work now it is a mess because of the missing traffic lights and the ensuing chaos (as if traffic here isn't chaotic enough!)
Several of the players on the Malian team also play in professional clubs in Europe and there was some fear that they may have been harmed because the fans were screaming for their blood and threatening to kill them. Thankfully they got out ok, but many of them are saying that they will probably no longer play on the national team.
What makes it all rather disturbing is that most of the vandalism seems to be completely unrelated to football and just young stupid men taking advantage of a moment of chaos to do harm. And that the police seemed unable to bring things under control quickly. It's rather frightening to think that one lives in a place which is overall very peaceful, but in which law and order could be so easily disrupted.
Some reports here and here
Several of the players on the Malian team also play in professional clubs in Europe and there was some fear that they may have been harmed because the fans were screaming for their blood and threatening to kill them. Thankfully they got out ok, but many of them are saying that they will probably no longer play on the national team.
What makes it all rather disturbing is that most of the vandalism seems to be completely unrelated to football and just young stupid men taking advantage of a moment of chaos to do harm. And that the police seemed unable to bring things under control quickly. It's rather frightening to think that one lives in a place which is overall very peaceful, but in which law and order could be so easily disrupted.
Some reports here and here
