February 20 – Fifteen Eritrean footballers who disappeared whilst playing in a regional tournament in December have been granted asylum in Uganda.
The players plus the team doctor absconded during the 2012 Cecafa Tusker Senior Challenge Cup.
The Eritreans had been eliminated from the tournament after drawing with Zanzibar 0-0, losing 3-2 to Malawi and being beaten 2-0 by Rwanda. Instead of returning home, they left their hotel reportedly to go shopping but a majority never boarded the plane.
“This is very good news if they have finally been sorted by the relevant authorities,” said Apollo David Kazungu, the Commissioner for Refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister in Uganda.
Human rights bodies have cited Eritrea as one of the world’s most repressive regimes and this is not the first time its footballers have opted not to return home. In 2011, 13 members of an Eritrean club sought asylum in Tanzania while 12 members of the national squad disappeared in Kenya in 2009.
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