South Sudan got off to a shaky start as they suffered a heavy loss to Algeria in the first leg of the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa of Nations (WAFCON) 2026 at the Juba National Stadium on Wednesday (19 February 2025.
The tournament serves as a qualifier for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 Qualifiers where the top four countries will represent the African continent in Brazil. But two more could be added should they do well in the FIFA play-off tournament.
South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco and Zambia flew the African flag in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.
The defeat to South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, means they have a mountain to climb in the reverse fixture scheduled for Wednesday, 26 February in Algeria .
Another negative result defeat for the 193-world ranked Bright Starlets will mean another long wait for a World Cup spot as the next tournament will be held in 2031.
In 2021 South Sudan’s progression was stopped by Kenya who defeated them 15-1 on aggregate.
In another 2026 WAFCON qualifier also played on Wednesday, Gambia defeated Niger 2-0 away in Niamey. The duo will do it all over again in the second leg in Senegal on Monday (24 February).
“We are delighted that the ball has kicked off on the African continent this week as they begin the process of determining who will be among the 32 teams from around the world who will proudly represent their nations at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027,” said FIFA Chief Women’s Football Officer Dame Sarai Bareman.
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ has already been a breakthrough moment for the women’s game in Africa, with three teams reaching the Round of 16 for the first time, including debutants Morocco, and this momentum sets the stage for an exciting qualifying journey not only in Africa but around the world.”
Five more matches were played on Thursday (20 February) with Botswana falling 0-2 to DR Congo in Francistown, Angola had the better of Zimbabwe in a 2-1 victory in Luanda. Mali fired six past Gabon without any reply in Franceville, while Benin brushed Sierra Leone aside in a 2-1 victory in Togo, with Tanzania too powerful for Equatorial Guinea after coming from behind, winning 3-1 in Dar es Salaam.
Action continued on Friday (21 February) as Uganda defeated Ethiopia 2-0, Eswatini went down 0-3 to Namibia, Togo thumped Djibouti 5-0, Rwanda lost 1-0 to Egypt while the spoils were shared between Kenya and Tunisia (0-0) as well as Guinea and Cape Verde (2-2).
Burundi and Burkina Faso will complete the first round first leg fixtures on Sunday when they meet in Bamako, Mali.
Two matches will not be played in this first round after both Chad and Congo withdrew from the qualifiers, giving a safe passage to the next round for Senegal and Malawi respectively.
South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Ghana all received byes and will join the action in the second round in October.
UEFA has more slot allocated to them with 11 spaces, followed by Asia on 6. The duo of CAF and CONCACAF have four spots each open them, while CONMEBOL have three and OFC with just one.
- CAF (Africa) – 4 slots
- UEFA – 11
- AFC (Asia) – 6
- CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean) – 4
- CONMEBOL (South America): 3 slots (including hosts Brazil)
- OFC (Oceania) – 1
FIRST ROUND RESULTS/FIXTURES:
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
South Sudan 0 – 5 Algeria
Niger 2 – 1 Gambia
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Botswana 0 – 2 DR Congo
Tanzania 3 – 1 Equatorial Guinea
Gabon 0 – 6 Mali
Benin 2 -1 Sierra Leone
Angola 2 – 1 Zimbabwe
Friday, February 21, 2025
Kenya 0 – 0 Tunisia
Eswatini 0 – 3 Namibia
Uganda 2 – 0 Ethiopia
Rwanda 0 – 1 Egypt
Guinea 2 – 2 Cape Verde
Djibouti 0 – 5 Togo
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Burundi vs. Burkina Faso
Monday, February 24, 2025
Gambia vs. Niger
Sierra Leone vs. Benin
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Egypt vs. Rwanda
Mali vs. Gabon
Algeria vs. South Sudan
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Ethiopia vs. Uganda
Namibia vs. Eswatini
Tunisia vs. Kenya
Zimbabwe vs. Angola
Burkina Faso vs. Burundi
DR Congo vs. Botswana
Togo vs. Djibouti
Cape Verde vs. Guinea
Equatorial Guinea vs. Tanzania
Second Round
● M33 & M34:
Angola/Zimbabwe vs. Malawi
● M35 & M36:
Botswana/DR Congo vs. South Africa
● M37 & M38:
Tanzania/Equatorial Guinea vs. Uganda/Ethiopia
● M39 & M40:
Eswatini/Namibia vs. Zambia
● M41 & M42:
Burundi/Burkina Faso vs. Djibouti/Togo
● M43 & M44:
South Sudan/Algeria vs. Cameroon
● M45 & M46:
Rwanda/Egypt vs. Ghana
● M47 & M48:
Kenya/Tunisia vs. Niger/Gambia
● M49 & M50:
Benin/Sierra Leone vs. Nigeria
● M51 & M52:
Guinea/Cape Verde vs. Gabon/Mali
● M53 & M54:
Senegal vs. Ivory Coast
By Matlhomola Morake
