The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has named 18 referees who will officiate at the 16th African youth Championship, which gets underway tomorrow in Kigali.

Hosts nation Rwanda have two representatives Michel Gasingwa (centre referee) and desire Bamporiki (assistant referee).

The pair officiated at the second round of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign and their performance may have earned them a call to the continental youth championship.

Other centre referees named include; Abdel Gadir Badr (Sudan), Keita Yakhouba (Guinea), Bennet Daniel (South Africa), Wellington Kaoma (Zambia), Ousmane Fall (Senegal), Gibert Ndume (Gabon) and Ragab Omar Mohamed (Libya) while Eritrea’s Emmanuel Ayob has been short listed as the reserve referee.

The assistant referees include; Jean Claude Birumushahu (Burundi), Biagui Djoukere (Togo), Adolphe Adama Pare (Burkina Faso), Rouani Bouazza (Morocco), Seedy Manneh (Gambia), Koissoual Waldabet (Tchad) and Aden Marwa Range (Kenya) while Uganda’s Hussein Bugembe is the reserve assistant referee.

Rwanda, Mali, Cameroon and Ghana are drawn in Group A while South Africa is drawn in group B against Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Egypt, who will host this year’s FIFA Youth World Champions.

Rwanda opens the competition against Mali at Amahoro stadium tomorrow before Ghana take on arch rivals Cameroon.

The Caf U-20 African Championship is held every two years with the top 4 teams qualifying for the Fifa World Youth Championship.

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