Mali fans were angry with Frederic Kanoute

Africa's World Cup qualifying campaign was once again marred by violence as a riot brought an early end to Mali's home match with Togo in Bamako on Sunday.

There was also crowd trouble in Cairo before and after the game between Egypt and Libya, with the visiting fans ripping up plastic seats and hurling these at the police.

In Cameroon, the problems came on the pitch as the beaten Sudanese players angrily confronted Senegalese referee Badara Diatta, who they felt had added too much injury time during which the Indomitable Lions scored their matchwinner.

But the most disturbing scenes came in Bamako where the game between Mali and Togo was abandoned when thousands of home spectators invaded the pitch.

The trouble started after Togo went 2-1 up in the 90th minute through Souleymane Cherif Maman, a result that left Mali, playing their first match under new French coach Pierre Lechantre, stuck at the bottom of Group One with just two points.

I understand the people's disappointment but nothing justifies such acts Presidential spokesman Seydou Sissouma

Police had to use tear gas and batons to disperse the rowdy crowd as fans poured into the streets surrounding the 26 March stadium, with cars attacked and reports of several people injured.

The rioting continued into the city, with thousands descending on the capital's main African Unity Avenue and screaming for the heads of Mali's top football players.

"Give us Frederic Kanoute and Mamadou Bakayoko! We're going to kill them!" they demanded.

Protestors blocked a main road with flaming tires, cutting off western Bamako, the so-called Left Bank, from the eastern half of the city.

By midnight, dozens of stores were looted with rioters also targeting several Togolese restaurants, which they smashed, ignoring Ivorian and Cameroonian restaurants nearby.

Presidential spokesman Seydou Sissouma said all the players were "secured" under guard, though he would not say where.

"I understand the people's disappointment, but nothing justifies such acts," said Sissouma.

On Monday, Mali Prime Minister Ousmane Issoufi Maiga went on national radio to congratulate Togo for its victory, and said his government would work to repair the damage caused by his nation's 'unsporting behaviour'.

Fifa has said that they have received the match commissioner's report, which will be examined by their disciplinary committee in the near future whereupon a final decision will be made on what happens next.

This is not the first time problems have hit a game between Mali and Togo after four people died in a stampede in October when the floodlights failed shortly after Togo's 1-0 win in a World Cup qualifier in Lome.

There were several other incidents of violence at games that month which prompted world football's governing body Fifa to insist on security inspections of stadiums across the continent to counter an escalation of ugly incidents.