Rwanda’s national team Amavubi have been pooled in Group L of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers alongside defending champions Senegal, Mozambique and Benin.

Rwanda was seeded in pot 4 during the draw held in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday evening by former Ivory Coast and Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou and South African legend Lucas Radebe.

The same pot included minnows Sao Tome & Principe, Tanzania, Central African Republic, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Liberia and South Sudan.

The top two teams from each of the 12 groups will qualify for the AFCON 2023 slated in Ivory Coast from June 23 to July 23 next year.

The qualifiers for the continent’s biggest showpiece will be the first test for new national team head coach Carlos Ferrer who took over the hot seat after football governing body (Ferwafa) decided to part ways with Vincent Mashami last month.

No team in this group, apart from Senegal, took part in the AFCON 2021 finals in Cameroon earlier this year and Amavubi face an uphill task against African champions Senegal, Mozambique and Benin if they are to end their 19-year wait for qualification  

Meanwhile, AFCON 2021 runners-up Egypt were pitted in Group D against Guinea, Malawi and Ethiopia While Cameroon, the host of the previous edition, were pooled in Group C alongside Kenya, Namibia, Burundi.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) changed the dates of the tournament to June and July rather than the usual January-February calendar to allow high profile players to play for their respective nations in the tournament without missing games for their European clubs and hence avoid the tournament from conflicting with other major tournaments, as previously claimed before the Cameroon showpiece.

The draw in full:

Group A: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe

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, The Gambia, South Sudan.

Group H: Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Comoros, Lesotho

Group I: DR Congo, Gabon, Mauritania, Sudan

 Group J: Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Botswana

Group K: Morocco, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia

Group L: Senegal, Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda.