A Russian group called New World Hackers has opened up on why it allegedly hacked the official website of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The group claims the move was “in protest” against Gabon, the host of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations.
“Gabon is a country of dictatorship,” one of its members told BBC Sport.
The African football body’s website was shut down for around five hours on Saturday, leading officials to investigate a technical fault prior to deciding the issue lay elsewhere.
This year’s Nations Cup has been the subject of opposition from a section of Gabonese who have used it as a vehicle to express political grievances.
Following last year’s disputed presidential elections, won by the incumbent Ali Bongo, who originally took power in 2009, people took to the street in protest.
The Gabonese authorities say three people died following violent clashes, while the opposition – led by former African Union chair Jean Ping – said the death toll was much higher.
In the ensuing months, the opposition called for a boycott of this year’s football tournament, which – having started on 14 January – will end on 5 February.
The Russian group also claims to have taken down the website of oil company Total, the official sponsor of the AFCON.
“I don’t want to talk a lot but yes, we did the same to Total,” the New World Hackers member, who requested anonymity, told the BBC via email.
However, a helpless CAF insists it can’t guarantee that the incident of Saturday won’t resurface in the future.
“CAF has taken action but we can’t certify 100% it will not happen again,” Junior Binyam, the governing body’s communications director, told BBC Sport.
“Even CIA servers are hacked.”
