Nigerian Basketballer Ate Cockroaches To Survive In Libya

Cowering in a strange apartment in downtown Benghazi, eating cockroaches to survive as the sound of gunfire rattles up from the streets below - it's a far cry from a young boy's dream of playing basketball in the NBA.

But then 27-year-old Alex Owumi had just joined the official team of Libyan dictator Colonel Gadaffi.

In an incredible turn of events, Owumi found himself caught up in the early days of the country's civil war before managing to flee to Egypt, where he joined up with a local basketball team and went on to lead them to championship glory.

Now playing his basketball in the UK, Owumi has written a book, published this week, to tell his incredible story.

he Journeyman point guard started to realise things were a little odd the moment he got off the plane in Libya to a rapturous welcome from fans.

It got weirder when he arrived at his apartment to see pictures of Gadaffi and his family on the shelves before being told he would be playing for the Libyan leader's team.

But things really got crazy when he visited the homes of his teammates - living in some of the city's most impoverished areas - and saw them gathering guns and ammunition, preparing for revolution.

In an interview with the website Buzzfeed he recalls: 'I was thinking, Man, y’all are not about to beat the army.

'Like, there is no way that is going to happen. And it ended up that they took over the second-biggest city in Libya.'

One day, when the driver who normally took him to practice failed to show up, Owumi called his coach who told him to look outside his window.

He climbed onto the roof of his apartment building and looked down on a crowd of protesters marching on a line of Libyan soldiers.

'I figured the soldiers were just trying to disperse the protestors,' Owumi told ESPN, 'I went downstairs to get some water, came up the steps and all of a sudden the soldiers were shooting at the crowds.

'I dropped the water, ducked down, and it was like ants scattering. People were dropping everywhere.'

He raced back into his apartment to send an email to his family but couldn't get a connection. He tried the phone but that was out of order too.

When he went to leave the apartment his neighbours called him back inside.

They told me to stay inside, that it wasn't safe,' Owumi said. 'I had one of those big steel doors, so I just slammed it and locked the door.'

Owumi was stranded in his apartment without food or water for two weeks. He saw his neighbour being assaulted and Molested and feared he'd never get out of the country alive.

'I basically ran out of food, water, and electricity. After two or three days I was saying to myself, "OK, the Libya army is going to shut this sh*t down and these people are going to clear the streets. This little baby revolution, this mini-revolution will be over.'

But it wasn't - after surviving on insects and whatever else he could find, one his teammates managed to fixe him a place on a bus leaving to Egypt.

The journey was fraught with difficulties, they passed numerous checkpoints manned by menacing-looking soldiers brandishing AK47's.

Eventually they reached the town of Salloum on the Egyptian border, where the two teammates were handed a drink and a box of crackers each.

They had hoped to make it to Cairo but ended up sleeping on the streets of the border town for several days. Owumi tried to contact the American embassy for help but his calls went unanswered.

Without the necessary immagration stamps in his passport he had to bribe a bus driver with $200 American to take him to Cairo.

Shortly after arriving and quite out of the blue, Owumi got a call from his coach in Libya who told him the El-Olympi team in Alexandria was looking for a player.

Although he was desperate to get home, the offer seemed interesting, he could do with the money and it would only mean staying in Egypt only another two months.

El-Olympi went on to win the championship and Owumi was named their most valuable player.

He added: 'For some reason, I thought of Egypt as a safe haven. The pictures I have in Egypt are just me being happy. I never would have thought that staying in the Middle East would bring me some happiness, kind of give me some mental rehab, but it did.