Four more teams have jetted into the country for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) starting this Saturday in Rwanda. The national teams of Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Zambia landed at Kigali International Airport yesterday afternoon. Apart from the Ethiopian team, which arrived aboard a chartered Ethiopian Airways flight, the other three delegations came aboard RwandAir flights. The four join Morocco and Angola, which arrived on Wednesday, as well as DR Congo who arrived last week.

With a delegation of 36 people including 23 are players and 13 staff, Ivory Coast, which will play the opening match against Rwanda on Saturday at Amahoro national stadium, will reside at Lemigo Hotel in Kimihurura. The other teams in Group A are; Gabon and Morocco.

The second team that jetted in yesterday was Cameroon that arrived from Uganda where they played a friendly match with the Uganda Cranes that ended goalless on Wednesday.

The Indomitable Lions, who also drew 1-1 with Amavubi last week, continued their journey to Huye in the Southern Province – the teams will stay at Hotel Mater Boniconcilli which will also accommodate Group B teams, Ethiopia, DR Congo while Angola will be at Hotel Galileo.

Cameroon will begin their title quest on January 18 against Angola at Huye stadium while Ethiopia’s ‘Walias’ that flew in with a delegation of 34 people, including 23 players and 11 staff members, will kick off their campaign against DR Congo.

Zambia, who are in Group D along with Uganda, Zimbabwe and Mali, were the fourth nation to touch base yesterday – the team was led by their captain Christopher Katongo.

Their delegation headed to Rubavu where they will be staying at Gorilla Hotel. The Chipolopolo begin their campaign against Zimbabwe on January 19 at Umuganda stadium.

Rwanda’s other group A opponents, Gabon, were expected to arrive last evening aboard a RwandAir flight while Nigeria, Niger, Mali and Guinea are expected to jet in today with Uganda scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw