2026 African Men's Handball Championship

2026 African Men's Handball Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Rwanda
Dates	21–31 January
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
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The 2026 African Men's Handball Championship will be the 27th edition of the African Men's Handball Championship, the biennial international men's handball championship of Africa organized by CAHB. The tournament is scheduled to be held from 21 to 31 January 2026 in Kigali, Rwanda.

It will be the first time in history that the championship will be organised by Rwanda and the first time that the championship will be held in East Africa.

It acts as the African qualifying tournament for the 2027 World Men's Handball Championship in Germany, with the top five nations qualifying.

Egypt are three time defending champions, most recently beating Algeria 29–21 in the 2024 final in Cairo.

Teams

Team	Appearance(s)					Previous best performance [a]
	Total	First	Last	Streak	2024
Algeria	26th	1976	2024	26	2nd	Champions (1981, 1983, 1985, 1983, 1989 , 1996, 2014 )
Angola	20th	1979		13	8th	Third place (2004, 2014, 2016)
Benin	2nd	1996		1	N/A	Ninth place ( 1996 )
Cameroon	19th	1974	2024	13	10th	Runners-up (1974)
Cape Verde	4th	2020		4	4th	Runners-up (2022)
Congo	22nd	1979		2	13th	Runners-up (1983)
Egypt	25th	1979		26	1st	Champions ( 1991 , 1992, 2000, 2004 , 2008, 2016 , 2020, 2022 , 2024 )
Gabon	12th	2000		8	11th	Fifth place ( 2018 )
Guinea	5th	1981		4	5th	Fifth place (2024)
Kenya	5th	2004		2	15th	Ninth place (2004)
Morocco	21st	1987		21	7th	Third place (2006, 2022)
Nigeria	16th	1979		7	9th	Fourth place (1998)
Rwanda (H)	2nd	2024		2	14th	Fourteenth place (2024)
Tunisia	27th	1974		27	3rd	Champions ( 1974 , 1976, 1979, 1994 , 1998 , 2002, 2006 , 2010, 2012, 2018)
Uganda	1st	Debut
Zambia	4th	2020	2024	4	16th	Thirteenth place (2022)

Draw

The draw was held on 14 November 2025 in Kigali, Rwanda. ^{[1] [2]}

Seeding

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Egypt   Algeria   Tunisia   Cape Verde	Guinea   Angola   Morocco   Nigeria	Cameroon   Gabon   Congo   Rwanda	Benin   Kenya   Zambia   Uganda

Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+2).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Algeria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Nigeria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Rwanda (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Placement round
4	Zambia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 21 January 2026. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
(H) Hosts

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Egypt	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Angola	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Gabon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Placement round
4	Uganda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 21 January 2026. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tunisia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Guinea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Cameroon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Placement round
4	Kenya	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 21 January 2026. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cape Verde	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Morocco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Congo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Placement round
4	Benin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 21 January 2026. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.

Notes

1. Bold text indicates they hosted that edition.

References

1. "27th Men's Senior Africa Cup of Nations, Rwanda 2026: Kigali will host the group stage draw on November 14th". CAHB. 10 November 2025. Retrieved 26 November 2025.
2. "27th Men's Senior CAN, Rwanda 2026: the group compositions are known!". CAHB. 14 November 2025. Retrieved 26 November 2025.