The draws for the 2016 African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers have been scheduled for April 5 at 4pm (local time) at the Caf headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

Forty two teams will be involved in the draw based on zonal distributions of the national associations affiliated to Caf.

The Northern Zone, which includes Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, will play each other on a round-robin basis with the top two qualifying for the final tournament.

For the rest of the zones, there will be two rounds each for the qualifiers and below is the zonal distribution.

*Zone West A (two spots) – Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone

*Zone West B (three spots) – Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Togo

*Central Zone (three spots) – Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Chad, DR Congo, Gabon

*Central-East Zone (three including hosts) – Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda.

*Southern Zone (three spots) – Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Mauritius, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The qualifiers will start from the weekend of June 19-21 through to August 28-30 where 15 teams will emerge to join hosts Rwanda for the final tournament from January 16-February 7.

This will be the fourth edition of the tournament designed exclusively for players who feature in their domestic leagues.

Democratic Republic of Congo won the inaugural event hosted by Ivory Coast in 2009 while Tunisia lifted the 2011 title in Sudan. Libya are the defending champions having clinched the 2014 trophy in South Africa.

Collins Okinyo

Ex- CAF Media Expert. An expert on African football with over 15 years experience ,always with an ear to the ground with indepth knowledge of the game. I have worked for top publications including 7 years at www.supersport.com until i founded www.soka25east.com to quench the thirst of football lovers across the continent. I have trained young upcoming journalists who are now a voice in African football.I have covered World Cup,AFCON,CHAN,Champions League,Confederations Cup,Cecafa,Cosafa,Wafu and many other football tournaments across the World. Founder Football Africa Arena(FAA),Founder www.afrisportdigital.com