MALABO: The Ghana Football Association has demanded action against Equatorial Guinea, last-minute host of the African Nations Cup, after crowd violence during Thursday’s semi-final between the two countries.

Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the GFA, said: “It’s a pity that this dark cloud overshadows our success and we really need to see some stiff action taken by the Confederation of African Football.”

The third-placed match between the hosts and DR Congo could be played behind closed doors.

Some 500 Ghanaians had flown in to watch their team and were placed in a section on the side of the stadium, away from the rest of the 15,000-capacity crowd at the Nuevo Estadio de Malabo.

Trouble flared at half-time with Ghana leading 2-0. Home supporters aimed bottles at Ghana players and supporters.

With the Ghana fans pinned in one corner by the home supporters, order was eventually restored when a police helicopter swooped above the crowd and managed to disperse the majority of the Equatorial Guinea supporters.

“It’s now like a war zone,” the Ghana Football Association (GFA) tweeted, claiming “barbaric acts of vandalism” while its president told the BBC it was lucky no-one was killed.

“We are lucky that we haven’t lost any lives, though people have sustained various degrees of injuries arising from objects thrown at them,” Nyantakyi told BBC World Service.

The Ghanaians were then held back at the stadium for several hours while home supporters rioted outside the stadium.

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