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Africa Cup of Nations: Hackers claim to have shut down soccer tournament’s official website

Group claiming to be based in Russia say they are protesting at organisers holding biennial competition in the “dictatorship” of Gabon

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Gabon drew 1-1 with Burkina Faso at the Stade de l'Amitie in Libreville on Wednesday. Photo: AP

A group of hackers claiming to be based in Russia said on Saturday they had shut down the website of the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament in a protest at organisers holding it in the “dictatorship” of Gabon, where president Ali Bongo Ondimba retained power in disputed and violent elections last year.

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A person sent an email to The Associated Press claiming the group New World Hackers had “taken down” the Confederation of African Football’s official website, which is the website of Africa’s top soccer body and the site for the continent’s main soccer tournament.

The site CAFonline.com was not working for at least five hours on Saturday afternoon and evening.

“We did this in protest against Gabon,” the person claiming to be one of the hackers, and who called themselves Kapustkiy, wrote in an email. “They are running the Africa Cup in a country where the dictator Ali Bongo is killing innocent people!”

Uganda's goalkeeper Denis Onyango concedes a goal against Egypt in Port-Gentil. Photo: AFP
Uganda's goalkeeper Denis Onyango concedes a goal against Egypt in Port-Gentil. Photo: AFP
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African soccer officials couldn’t immediately confirm if their website had been hacked. CAF spokesman Junior Binyam said he couldn’t say if there were unconnected technical problems with the website or if it had been intentionally targeted, but CAF had been working on the problem for nearly two hours without success when Binyam spoke with the AP.

The purported hackers, whose claims could not be verified by the AP, said they attacked the website because the central African nation of Gabon was a “dictatorship” under Bongo and should not be hosting the tournament.

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