LOME, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Togo organized a solemn ceremony in the capital Lome on Friday to pay a national tribute to the two victims of the Jan. 8 attack on the Togolese football team by Angola's Cabinda separatists.

In front of the Lome conference center, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe presided over the ceremony attended by the prime minister, the speaker of the National Assembly, members of parliament and senior officials of government.

Gnassingbe posthumously awarded the Order of Mono (a honorable distinction) to the two victims, the deputy coach Amelete Abalo, 55; and Stanislas Ocloo, 35, the press official of the team.

Also present was an Angolan delegation led by Foreign Minister Afonso Assuncao dos Anjos and the players of the Togolese football team, the Sparrows, who were wearing black Puma t-shirts, their uniform designer.

The Togolese team was attacked by the Cabinda separatists as they were entering this enclave to play against Ghana in a match for the final phase of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) being held in Angola in 2010. A total of nine people were injured, but unfortunately Abalo and Ocloo succumbed to their injuries.

"The tragic loss of our compatriots threw the national team into despair because it's them who were supporting us morally," the captain of the Sparrows, Sheyi Adebayor, said when he read the funeral eulogy on behalf of the team.

The Cabinda events will forever leave "apocalyptic and disturbing memories in us," read the eulogy of the Togolese Association of Sports journalists.

In memory of the dead, the Togolese Sparrows played a farewell football match against the Media FC, a Togolese journalists' football team.

Following the attack in Cabinda, Togo pulled out of the CAN and its national team had to return home. A three-day national mourning was observed until Wednesday.