By our Reporter
The draw for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations is out. The qualifying groups, made in Johannesburg on Tuesday :
Group A: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome e Principe or Mauritius
Group B: Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Togo, Eswatini
Group C: Cameroon, Kenya, Namibia, Burundi
Group D: Egypt, Guinea, Malawi, Ethiopia
Group E: Ghana, Madagascar, Angola, Central African Republic
Group F: Algeria, Uganda, Niger, Tanzania
Group G: Mali, Congo Brazzaville, Gambia, South Sudan
Group H: Ivory Coast (hosts), Zambia, Comoros, Lesotho
Group I: Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Mauritania, Sudan
Group J: Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Botswana
Group K: Morocco, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia
Group L: Senegal (holders), Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda
The Dates scheduled is May 30-June 14: Matchdays 1, 2
Sept 19-27: Matchdays 3, 4
March 20-28, 2023: Matchdays 5, 6
— Winners and runners-up in each group except H qualify for 24-team finals in the Ivory Coast during June and July 2023
— Ivory Coast automatically qualify from Group H as tournament hosts, along with the highest placed of the other three teams
— Kenya and Zimbabwe are suspended by FIFA due to government interference in the running of the sport and they will be allowed to compete only if the bans are lifted by mid May
— Mauritius have protested a 4-3 aggregate loss to Sao Tome e Principe in the preliminary round and the outcome of a disciplinary hearing will decide which nation competes in Group A.