Plight of Eritrean football players addressed

Four Eritrean footballers who disappeared from their hotel in Uganda’s south-western city of Jinja last month have told the BBC they are facing ‘great danger’. They said they had received threats for abandoning their team, which was knocked out of the regional Cecafa Under-20 Challenge Cup tournament in the semi-final stage. They are now appealing for help to get out of Uganda because they fear they might be kidnapped and returned to Eritrea. ‘We are changing houses week after week. We are living underground,’ one player said. Their US lawyer, Kimberley Motley, said they had applied for asylum with the UN refugee agency but had not received a response.