Rwanda Basketball Federation (Ferwaba) has set May 25-31 as the dates for the U-16 tournament. According to the Ferwaba secretary general Richard Mutabazi, all the 10 countries in the Zone 5 region including Burundi, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda are expected to participate in the one-week long event.
The winners will qualify for the Fiba Afrobasket U-16 tournament with the girls’ edition scheduled for July 16-24 in Madagascar and the boys’ edition in July in Mali. Egypt has already qualified in both categories.
Mutabazi revealed that, “We have approval from the Ministry of Sports and Culture and are already engaging the private sector for funding. We are ready for this challenge.”
Rwanda will also host the Zone V Club Championships from October 4-11 to accommodate Uganda that will be representing the region at the Fiba Afrobasket Men’s Championships from August 19-30 in Tunis, Tunisia.
Uganda, the champions of the women’s Zone 5 event last August will compete at the All Africa Games from September 5-19 in Congo Brazzaville as well as the Fiba Afrobasket women’s championships from September 24-October 3 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Mutabazi is confident that Ferwaba has the capacity to organize successful tournaments following a good proven record having hosted the 2009 Fiba Afrobasket Men’s Championships, 2010 Fiba Africa U-18 Championships and the 2011 Zone V Championship.
The New Times
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