Central Africa Republic Coach Escapes Death After House Catches Fire

Central Africa Republic coach François Zahoui escaped death narrowly after suspected arsonists torched his house on Monday night.

The Ivorian narrates that he had gone to have dinner in a nearby restaurant before he was called by the neighbours and found his house on fire.

A distraught Zahoui told Le Sportif that he was not able to salvage anything else from the inferno that was initially suspected to have been caused by a power surge.

“All I can say is that it was God who saved me. I escaped certain death. It was on Monday that I was actually going to occupy this house. And everything was in place to settle in. Everything was furnished”, said François Zahoui as translated from French.

“After setting up all my things, I decided to have dinner at an Ivorian restaurant in Bangui. When I returned, I saw a crazy world around my house. I am now asking myself too my many questions on how it caught fire,” he added.

Zahoui unsuccessfully tried calling the police hotline 999 before the fire brigade came.

By the time the team from the fire brigade got to the scene of the accident, his house had already been consumed by the flames.

Zahoui, who was in charge of Niger from 2015 to 2019, was appointed as Central Africa Republic coach in December last year, replacing Swiss coach Raoul Savoy who left his role after failing to guide the Wild Beasts to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

His task remains to guide Les Fauves to their first-ever participation at the biennial showpiece, with the next edition slated for Cameroon.