2 players and driver dead in Guinea soccer club bus crash

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Two players and a driver are dead after a top-flight Guinea soccer club’s team bus crashed into a stationary truck late at night on the journey back from a game.

The club, Wakriya AC, said new signing Alfred Kargbo died at the scene of the crash on Monday night. Midfielder Aboubacar Camara and bus driver N’Fa Laye died in the hospital on Tuesday after being taken there in critical condition.

Issiaga Camara, a defender for the Guinea under-17 national team, was also in critical condition but has improved, Wakriya said. He played at the under-17 World Cup in 2017. He is not related to Aboubacar Camara.

Other players, including defender and team captain Ibrahima Sory Doumbouya, who was recently selected in the Guinea senior national team squad, sustained minor injuries.

Wakriya said the bus plowed into a stationary truck that was carrying tree logs at around 11 p.m. Monday at Friguiadi, just outside the capital Conakry. Although it’s based in the western city of Boke, the team was due to stop over in Conakry after a game against league leader Loubha Telimele in Kindia, about 85 miles northeast of the capital.

Wakriya said it believed the truck had broken down in the middle of the road and had no warning lights on and the team bus slammed into the back of it. Some of the tree logs fell onto the Wakriya bus.

Kargbo was from Sierra Leone and his family has asked that his body be repatriated, Wakriya said. There will be a memorial service for Camara at the country’s main September 28 Stadium in Conakry on Friday.

The West Africa nation is due to host the 2025 African Cup of Nations, the continent’s biggest soccer tournament. It’s the home country of Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita.