The script was written long ago — small island nation, eliminated at the group stage, goes home with a good story. Cape Verde has not read it.

Three games in at the 2026 World Cup, it is unbeaten, through to the knockouts, and nobody is quite sure what to expect from the African nation.

Cape Verde became a FIFA member in 1986. After failing to qualify for the 2002 extravaganza with a loss to Algeria in the Qualifiers, the country made steady progress.

Cape Verde attained its first AFCON qualification in 2013 and came close to sealing a World Cup berth in 2022, only to fall short at the final hurdle due to a last-game draw against Nigeria.

Four years later, it went one better — topping its CAF group ahead of Cameroon to book its tickets for the North American showpiece.

Cape Verde’s first test was against a Spanish side that had dismantled defences on the way to the EURO 2024 title. The Sharks held the Spaniards to a goalless draw through an exemplary display from their 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha. They then came from behind to hold Uruguay 2-2.

Saudi Arabia, too, could not find a way past the Cape Verde defence.

It now has a date with Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the round of 32. A year ago, that sentence would have read as fiction. However, Bubista’s men have spent the last three weeks making the football world question everything it thought it knew. Why stop now?

At least two protesters were shot dead by security forces in Cameroon as opposition supporters rallied to demand credible results from the country’s recent presidential election, the opposition said on Sunday (October 26, 2025).

Hundreds stormed the streets in different cities following days of unrest and in response to protest calls by opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who claims to have defeated President Paul Biya in the Oct. 12 election.

Cameroon’s top court, the constitutional council, is expected to announce final election results on Monday (October 27), but the opposition and their supporters have accused authorities of seeking to rig the vote.

Two protesters were shot dead in the economic hub of Douala on Sunday during unrest as security forces clashed with opposition supporters, according to the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the reports of the deaths, which were also reported by local media. Authorities did not immediately speak on the issue.

Videos online showed protesters clashing with security forces, who fired tear gas and tried to disperse the protesters barricading major roads in Douala and other cities including Garoua and Maroua in the north.

Dozens of opposition supporters, activists and leaders have already been arrested in recent days as protests continued. Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji told reporters Saturday (October 25) that the government arrested several people plotting violent attacks.

One protester, Oumarou Bouba, a 27-year-old trader in the northern city of Maroua, said, “I am ready to stake my life to defend my vote. I voted for Tchiroma because I want change.”

Cameroon, a country of nearly 30 million people, has seen growing tensions since the build-up to the election in which Biya is seeking reelection.

The decision by the 92-year-old Biya, the world’s oldest leader who has been in power for nearly half his life, to seek reelection angered the country’s youth and the opposition.

The opposition has accused Biya of having a hand in the disqualification of his strongest rival and of using state machinery to manipulate the election in his favor.