Hackers in Russia claim to shut down African Cup website
LIBREVILLE- A group of Russian hackers claimed Saturday to have shut down the website of the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament in a protest at organizers holding it in Gabon, where President Ali Bongo Ondimba retained power in disputed and violent elections last year.
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, 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.
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 taken down, 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.
