DORTMUND, GERMANY: Spain international Marc Bartra was injured in the explosion which hit the Borussia Dortmund team bus on Tuesday and saw their Champions League game against Monaco called off, the club confirmed.
The 26-year-old center-back injured his hand and was taken to hospital for treatment, said Dortmund’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
The quarter-final first leg was rescheduled for 1845 local time (1645 GMT) on Wednesday.
“There has been an attack with explosives on the team bus,” said Watzke.
“The whole team is in a state of shock, you can’t get pictures like that out of your head.
“I hope the team will be in a position to be able to compete tomorrow on the pitch.
“In a crisis situation like this, Borussia pulls together.”
The explosions came shortly after 1900 local time on Wittbraeucker Strasse, around ten kilometers (6 miles) from the Dortmund stadium Signal Iduna Park.
According to the police, three explosive devices were detonated near the team bus while it was en route. Several of the vehicles’ window panes were broken.
In the aftermath of the explosions, the Dortmund team was taken back to the team hotel.
“For security reasons, we do not want to announce the next steps in the procedure,” added Watzke.
With the 80,000-capacity stadium filling up just before the scheduled kick-off time, fans were told to stay in the ground until police signalled it was safe for them to leave.
“All our support for Marc Bartra, BVB and all their fans,” tweeted Barcelona, Bartra’s former club, before their Champions League quarter-final against Juventus on Tuesday.
An attack of this nature is unpredecented in German club football.
The national team, which included some current Dortmund players, was involved in the terror attack in the November 13 terror attacks on Paris in 2015.
The German team spent the night at the Stade de France, on police advice, following their friendly defeat to hosts France and flew home the next morning.
Four days later the Germany-Netherlands friendly in Hanover was called off at short notice through fear of a terror attack.
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Dortmund’s Bartra injured in team bus explosion
Dortmund’s Bartra injured in team bus explosion
Ugandan opposition turns national flag into protest symbol
KAMPALA: Hundreds screamed with excitement as Uganda’s opposition leader passed by a recent rally, with the crowd waving a sea of national flags — a dangerously politicized symbol in the run-up to this week’s election.
Analysts say it is almost a foregone conclusion that President Yoweri Museveni, 81, will win a seventh term in Thursday’s vote, given his near-total control over the state apparatus in the east African country.
But his opponent, 43-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, has framed the election as a protest vote and cannily turned the national flag into a symbol of resistance.
Police last month warned against using the flag “casually and inappropriately.”
Wine’s supporters have faced frequent intimidation by the security forces during the campaign, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office and other observers.
But the flag is “the only weapon we have,” said woodworker Conrad Olwenyi, 31, at a Wine rally this week.
“We cannot fight the security, because they have a gun. We only have the flag,” he said. But “if they shoot you when you have the flag, they are shooting the country.”
- ‘Reclaiming patriotism’ -
Uganda’s flag — created when the country achieved independence from Britain in 1962 — has stripes of black to represent Africa, yellow for its sunshine, and red to represent African brotherhood, with a grey crowned crane overlaid.
In the 2021 elections, Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) adopted red berets as a symbol, but the government ruled that was illegal since they were part of the military uniform, and used that ruling to justify raids on the party’s offices.
The flag is a clever alternative and a way of “reclaiming patriotism,” said Uganda expert Kristof Titeca.
“It’s kind of taken the government by surprise, and so that’s why they started this clampdown,” he told AFP.
Like many countries in east Africa, there are laws governing how the national flag may be used, though these were rarely enforced in Uganda in the past.
“It shows the panic,” prominent cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo told AFP.
“I don’t think they are threatened by misuse of the flag. They are threatened by the visibility of the support toward NUP,” said Ssentongo, adding that as Museveni ages and nears 40 years in power, “the space for freedom of expression also shrinks.”
“Everyone has a right to use the national flag, but it depends on in what context they’re using it for. I believe the opposition is politicizing it,” said Israel Kyarisiima, a national youth co-ordinator for Museveni’s National Resistance Movement party.
Security services have repeatedly been accused by Wine’s supporters of targeting those carrying the flag at rallies, with the leader urging followers in his Christmas address to “come to the defense of anyone assaulted for carrying the flag.”
And the threats from police have not stopped Wine’s supporters brandishing the flag at rallies.
“Now we’ve got something that can really show our unity as Ugandans, and they are trying to make it criminal,” said one attendee this week, Ruth Excellent Mirembe, 25, waving a flag.
Trying to stop its use is “oppression in the highest form,” she told AFP. “This represents us as Ugandans.”
Analysts say it is almost a foregone conclusion that President Yoweri Museveni, 81, will win a seventh term in Thursday’s vote, given his near-total control over the state apparatus in the east African country.
But his opponent, 43-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, has framed the election as a protest vote and cannily turned the national flag into a symbol of resistance.
Police last month warned against using the flag “casually and inappropriately.”
Wine’s supporters have faced frequent intimidation by the security forces during the campaign, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office and other observers.
But the flag is “the only weapon we have,” said woodworker Conrad Olwenyi, 31, at a Wine rally this week.
“We cannot fight the security, because they have a gun. We only have the flag,” he said. But “if they shoot you when you have the flag, they are shooting the country.”
- ‘Reclaiming patriotism’ -
Uganda’s flag — created when the country achieved independence from Britain in 1962 — has stripes of black to represent Africa, yellow for its sunshine, and red to represent African brotherhood, with a grey crowned crane overlaid.
In the 2021 elections, Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) adopted red berets as a symbol, but the government ruled that was illegal since they were part of the military uniform, and used that ruling to justify raids on the party’s offices.
The flag is a clever alternative and a way of “reclaiming patriotism,” said Uganda expert Kristof Titeca.
“It’s kind of taken the government by surprise, and so that’s why they started this clampdown,” he told AFP.
Like many countries in east Africa, there are laws governing how the national flag may be used, though these were rarely enforced in Uganda in the past.
“It shows the panic,” prominent cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo told AFP.
“I don’t think they are threatened by misuse of the flag. They are threatened by the visibility of the support toward NUP,” said Ssentongo, adding that as Museveni ages and nears 40 years in power, “the space for freedom of expression also shrinks.”
“Everyone has a right to use the national flag, but it depends on in what context they’re using it for. I believe the opposition is politicizing it,” said Israel Kyarisiima, a national youth co-ordinator for Museveni’s National Resistance Movement party.
Security services have repeatedly been accused by Wine’s supporters of targeting those carrying the flag at rallies, with the leader urging followers in his Christmas address to “come to the defense of anyone assaulted for carrying the flag.”
And the threats from police have not stopped Wine’s supporters brandishing the flag at rallies.
“Now we’ve got something that can really show our unity as Ugandans, and they are trying to make it criminal,” said one attendee this week, Ruth Excellent Mirembe, 25, waving a flag.
Trying to stop its use is “oppression in the highest form,” she told AFP. “This represents us as Ugandans.”
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