The preliminary draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations edition was officially conducted at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt on Tuesday, 20 February. The event comes after the successful conclusion of the 34th edition of AFCON in Ivory Coast early this month.

These will compete in a home and away knockout format, where the four (4) remaining nations will then be eligible to join the 44 nations that will be engaged in the group stages of the qualifiers.

During this stage of the qualifiers, the four lowest ranked nations will play at home first, with the return leg to be hosted by the higher ranked opposing nation.

In the draws conducted on Tuesday, Somalia will face Eswatini, São Tomé and Príncipe will take on South Sudan, Chad will be up again Mauritius while Djibouti were pitted against Liberia.