Eritrean players disappear in Uganda after CECAFA

Seven players from the Eritrean football team have gone missing after playing in the East African regional championship in Uganda.

The rest of the squad have returned home following the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, where they finished runners-up.

Seven Eritrea national team players missed the flight back to Asmara after the recently concluded Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in Kampala.

The news of their disappearance was confirmed by the Eritrean Football Association on social media platforms.

Robel Kidane, Yosief Mebrahtu, Filmon Semere, and Abel Ogbay, Ismail Jahar are some of the players confirmed by the FA to have missed the flight.

Others are Isias Abraham and Eyob Girmay who were part of the Red Sea Camel side that impressed and reached the finals for the first time in their history losing 3-0 to Uganda on Thursday.

It’s the second time in less than two months after their U-20 players also disappeared during the youth tournament in Jinja.

However, they later resurfaced before losing to Kenya in the semi-finals.

This latest incident follows a long list of Eritrean footballers escaping in the past.

In 2015, ten Eritrean footballers sought asylum in Botswana after a World Cup qualifying match and six years before, the entire national refused to return home after the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in Kenya.

Over fifteen players also disappeared in Kampala during the 2012 Cecafa tournament and were granted asylum by the Government of Uganda a year later.

Two years earlier 15 players and the team doctor were granted asylum in Uganda after they absconded in the country also during the Senior Challenge Cup.

At the 2009 edition of the tournament the entire team, apart from the coach and an official, failed to return home from Kenya.

Human rights group Amnesty International says thousands of Eritreans continue to flee the country while the authorities severely restrict their right to do so.

The Eritrean government has dismissed these allegations in the past, and said figures of those fleeing are fabricated.