'Sirens are not unusual at AFCON': Inside the stadium disaster in Cameroon

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A security official told me, in French, that there had been pushing, shoving and jostling, but none of these words when translated to English quite convey the menace of a "stampede," of "trampling," which is how the gendarme next to him, slugging a bottle of Tangui bottled water and wiping sweat from his forehead, described what he had seen.
READ: Everything you need to know about AFCON Motsepe also identified a gate that hadn't been opened -- the policeman told me that people hadn't been able to enter via the east entrance -- while it may emerge that the stadium not being completely finished (they were still actively working on it on the eve of the tournament) also played a part in people being funnelled through narrow passageways to gain access to the venue.
Motsepe's vow on Tuesday, that such scenes will never be replayed again, must birth action, resolution and modification; they must not just be the hollow words of a new president looking to smooth over the worst day of his tenure at the helm of African football.
As I returned to my apartment in the early hours of Tuesday morning, I reflected on the AFCON's darkest day -- numerically eclipsing the attack on Togo's bus in Cabinda Province, Angola, in 2010 -- and a tragedy that unravelled only a few hundred metres away from me, as I sat, in my ignorance, watching a match of football.