'Premonition' of disaster

Hearts' recent success has not helped relations with fans of big rivals Asante Kotoko

BBC Sport Online correspondent Durosimi Thomas was due to attend the Hearts of Oak v Asante Kotoko match which ended in so many deaths, but took notice of the signs telling him not to go.

A match between the arch-rivals of Ghanaian football, Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko, is a game an international football journalist should not want to miss, especially if you live in the country.

In my years based as a sports reporter in Ghana, the derby on May 9 was going to be my first full coverage of the clash between these two sides.

The last time I saw them play was on television in which Hearts won 4-0 and another game which I only watched towards the end.

I was looking forward to this game with great excitement, since the only derby I had witnessed at domestic level is that of my native Sierra Leone - East End Lions versus Mighty Blackpool.

So it was time to see something different - except I didn't...

Catalogue of disasters

Last weekend alone, the build-up to the ASEC and Africa Sports derby in Ivory Coast was also tense but it was overshadowed by the World Cup qualifiers.

Fans went on the rampage in Ethiopia at the African Youth Championship

There, in Abidjan, one person was killed and 39 injured.

A derby in the Congo DR also ended with 14 lives lost and 43 perished at Ellis Park in Johannesburg when Kaizer Chiefs clashed with Orlando Pirates.

All happened within weeks and days of each other. And on May Day a friendly tournament between the Kenyan rivals Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards was marred by violence and firing of tear gas.

I looked at all this and, whether it was an unusual instinct or God's own way of talking to me, I had this feeling that the flow of blood in Africa's stadiums was not over yet.

'Steps' premonition

I am not superstitious, but growing up in Freetown, the culture cultivates one's belief in certain minor things that people encounter.

I am referring now to something that happened to me this week.

I was climbing the stairs to visit a friend when I missed my steps and fell. The last time I was on the floor on all fours was a long time ago.

It was a sign that I had to be careful and that something horrible was going to happen

  Durosimi Thomas

For me, it was a sign that I had to be careful and that something horrible was going to happen.

There was also the issue of the tense build-up to the match.

Pre-season scuffle

I was in Ethiopia when rivals, fans, players and officials of Hearts and Kotoko were engaged in a scuffle in a pre-season match back in Ghana.

Hearts against Kotoko was the only game many fans were talking about, since both sides were going to meet very early in the season.

Many Kotoko fans celebrated the exit of Hearts as title holders of the African Champions League, adding fuel to the fire.

The choice of referee built up further tension of its own - the match officials were known only minutes before the match after a ballot.

Events surrounding the national team's World Cup debacle had been polarised by factors involving the rivalry between these two clubs.

Bid to end jinx

The national team had a coach from Hearts of Oak, Jones Attuquayefio, who was sacked, and Kotoko fans hailed the decision.

I was not the only journalist who pulled out due to the tension

  Durosimi Thomas

So the signs that Kotoko were coming down for some revenge on the pitch to end a five-year winless jinx, and begin their campaign for a first league title in seven years, were clear.

My apprehension, after weighing the animosity, may seem unique, but I was not the only journalist who pulled out due to the tension.

But with all this that kept me away, there was something burning my mind which is hard to explain.

It was like I was receiving a clear message inside me saying "don't go!".

It was the first time in my life I pulled out of an important assignment working for the BBC.

Live ammunition fired

I was on BBC duty when live ammunition was fired to disperse angry fans who disrupted the match between Cameroon and Egypt in the Under-20 Cup of Nations in Ethiopia.

The behaviour of the Ethiopian fans on March 24, angry at what they perceived as an arranged result, could have cost the lives of anybody.

When the pitch was invaded it was difficult to tell what was going to happen next and who was the target of the fans who held sharp objects.

A South African journalist was punched after he was mistaken for an Egyptian. I was lucky to escape unharmed with my equipment.

I may have learnt a few safety precautions from that incident in Addis Ababa, but I saw the one in Accra coming.