ABIDJAN (Côte d'Ivoire) - The qualification journey for the 2027 Women's AfroBasket begins in September 2026 and runs until May 2027, with seven places available across the seven African zones.
Before the qualifiers begin, the host cities of which will be announced later, FIBA.basketball looks back at previous events.
Which teams are expected to participate in the qualifiers?
The top five teams from the last tournament (Nigeria, Mali, South Sudan, Senegal and Cameroon) are automatically qualified for the main tournament in 2027, leaving the other nations to fight for the remaining seven places.
Each zone has an opportunity to qualify a team, but some zones continue to struggle to attract participants.
Zone 1
Neither Zone 1 nor Zone 4 has ever had more than two teams competing in the tournament in its modern history.
Zone 1's last qualifiers were in 2015, when Algeria and Morocco competed in a two-team home-and-away playoff series, with Algeria making the Final. Tunisia has made the most appearances in the final phase, playing in 13 tournaments.
Zone 4
Zone 4, meanwhile, while technically consisting of eight countries, has defaulted into a direct two-team showdown over the past decade.
Cameroon have already qualified, and DR Congo and the Central African Republic, who last competed in 2017, are expected to participate. Gabon, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe all have a chance to play.
Zone 2
In contrast, Zone 2 hosts some of the continent's powerhouses. With both Mali and Senegal already qualified, Guinea, who finished 12th in the 2025 tournament, are expected to lead the qualifiers, alongside Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
Zone 3
Meanwhile, Nigeria have already qualified from Zone 3 and Côte d'Ivoire, who placed seventh as hosts in the 2025 Final Phase, are expected to headline the qualifiers.
Rather than running two independent regional brackets, FIBA Africa has previously combined the eligible participants from Zones 2 and 3 into a joint qualifying series. Other Zone 3 nations include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Niger, and Togo.
Zone 5
Elsewhere, Zone 5 is the most active and competitive sub-zone, routinely hosting five-team round-robin tournaments filled with fierce regional rivalries.
South Sudan have already secured their place, leaving Uganda, Egypt and Rwanda, who placed 8th, 9th and 11th respectively in 2025, to compete for a return to the main tournament alongside Kenya and Burundi.
Long-overdue comebacks are expected from Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia, as well as Eritrea's debut.
Zone 6
Zone 6, home to powerhouses Angola and Mozambique, will see the two nations battle it out for a place in the main tournament.
This 10-nation zone has traditionally been dominated by these two teams, with Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa also expected to participate.
Whether Zone 7, home to the Indian Ocean island nations of Madagascar (the zone's clear basketball powerhouse), Seychelles, Mauritius, Comoros, and Djibouti, will finally hold an on-court tournament remains to be seen.
Which team has reached the Women's AfroBasket the most times via the qualifiers?
Although Senegal has made the most appearances in tournament history (26), it has historically bypassed regional qualifying tournaments because it automatically qualifies for the next cycle as a regular podium finisher or host.
Other nations, however, have had to earn their places through the gruelling qualifying tournaments.
Angola, who have made 21 appearances in total, alternate between finishing outside the top automatic spots and winning the tournament, and have routinely played in the Zone 6 regional qualifiers.
They have successfully navigated and won these qualification brackets a record 14 times.
The same goes for Mozambique, who have made 19 appearances in total. They regularly play against Angola in Zone 6 home-and-away series or multi-team tournaments when they do not hold an automatic top-four continental seed, and have qualified 13 times through this route.
Côte d'Ivoire and Egypt, who have played in the main tournament 17 and 13 times respectively, have also primarily earned their places through the challenging and highly competitive Zone 3 and Zone 5 regional tournaments.
Mali, the second-highest ranked team in terms of participation in the Final Phase with 22 appearances, has frequently fought its way through intense Zone 2 sub-zonal qualification tournaments against Senegal, Cape Verde and Guinea over the decades to secure its place.
Teams that have played in the last five editions of the Women's AfroBasket
Eight national teams have achieved a perfect attendance record by playing in all five of the most recent editions of the FIBA Women's AfroBasket tournament: 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025.
These are Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique, Egypt and Côte d'Ivoire, who have played in all five editions, as well as Guinea, DR Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Cape Verde, South Sudan and Tunisia, who have played in some editions.
Algeria, Gabon and South Africa played in the main tournament hosted in Cameroon in 2015, but have not returned since.
How the debutant teams fared in the last three editions of the qualifiers?
While most nations have historically entered at least one qualifier in the past, Zone 5 has seen a new entrant in the last three qualifying cycles (2021, 2023 and 2025): South Sudan.
South Sudan made their competitive debut at the 2021 Zone 5 Qualifiers in Kigali, Rwanda.
As a newly formed programme, they suffered tough losses to seasoned teams such as Kenya and Rwanda, but gained crucial experience.
They returned for the 2023 qualifiers, winning one match, and finally broke through in the 2025 cycle.
At the 2025 Zone 5 qualifiers in Cairo, they defeated Kenya and Burundi to finish third, earning them a FIBA wildcard to the 2025 Final Phase. There, they went on to win the bronze medal as overall tournament debutants.
Other teams that made comebacks into the qualifiers after a considerable hiatus include Zone 5's Burundi (2025), Zambia in Zone 6 (2021), and Guinea in Zone 2/3 (2023).
Upsets in the last three editions of the qualifiers
Mozambique vs. Angola (2025 Zone 6 Qualifiers)
The two-game series played in Luanda was eventually decided by a margin of less than ten points.
Mozambique overcame the hostile atmosphere at the Cidadela Gymnasium, relying on a stellar defensive performance in the third quarter to outscore Angola 16–10 and secure a 6-point victory (50–44) on foreign soil.
However, Angola converted a clutch free throw in the return match with just three seconds left, establishing a seven-point winning margin (65–58) and clinching the sole slot.
Mozambique would later benefit from a wildcard entry to compete in the main tournament.
Uganda vs. Egypt (2025 Zone 5 Qualifiers)
Heading into the Final game against Uganda, Egypt were the heavily favoured powerhouse of the tournament after an unbeaten run on their home court in Cairo.
However, the Gazelles, who had lost 74–65 to Egypt in the 2023 Zone 5 Final, played an incredibly physical and disciplined game to completely disrupt the script and defeat the hosts 74–63.
Uganda secured the automatic qualification berth outright, leaving a shocked Egypt to rely on a wildcard to secure their place in the main tournament.
Kenya vs. South Sudan (2025 Zone 5 Qualifiers)
South Sudan were making their third appearance at the qualifiers, having secured just one victory in their previous two tournaments (in 2021 and 2023). They beat Kenya twice in a row to finish third in the five-team competition.
They were eventually awarded a wildcard to compete in the main tournament in Abidjan.
Former African silver medallists Kenya lost 86–69 in the group stage before losing 80–63 in the classification matches to finish fourth.
Kenya vs. Egypt (2021 Zone 5 Qualifiers)
Egypt entered the final at the Kigali Arena in Rwanda as overwhelming favourites to win the tournament.
Just a few days earlier, in the round-robin group stage, they had outlasted Kenya in a staggering, high-scoring thriller that ended 107–106.
However, the Kenya Lionesses completely flipped the narrative, stunning the zone heavyweights to secure a resounding 16-point victory (99–83) and win the title.
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