Defending African Nations Championship (CHAN) champions Morocco have pulled out participation from this year’s edition less than a month to the tournament due to fears of the emerged Corona virus (COVID-19).

Sources in the North African country have confirmed that the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) have since comunicated to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) their decision to withdraw their appearance at the tournament to scheduled to kick-off on 4th April, 2020 in Cameroon where two cases of the pandemic have been confirmed.

CAF on Friday announced that all 2021 AFCON Qualifiers are postponed.

CAF cited reasons for the postponment as due to the fact that the World Health Organization has declared Coronavirus a pandemic and also that several players who are supposed to be involved in the AFCON qualifiers come from the countries that have been severely affected by the virus, that is Europe and Asia.

“CAF wishes to inform Member Associations and the entire African football family that we are closely monitoring the evolution of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) around the world and in particular the African continent. According to World Health Organization (WHO), no African country till date has been declared a high risk.” CAF said in an official statement released on their website.

Morocco are the defending champions of the competition that only allows players plying their trade in domestically, having won the last edition on home soil in 2018.

The Atlas Lions qualified for this year’s edition to run from 4th to 25th April and have been drawn in Group C alongside Uganda, Rwanda and Togo.