The Confederation of African Football has selected Egypt to host the continent's qualifying tournament for next year's London Olympics.

The November 26-December 10 event will include Algeria, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and host Egypt, after they survived a three-round, home-and-away elimination process.

The decision to award Egypt the tournament was made despite security concerns at football matches in Egypt which continue to be racked by crowd violence.

CAF sent a letter of apology to Nigeria, which had also bid to host the qualifying tournament. It said “the Egyptian government showed strong will to organize this event in order to highlight to Africa and the world that the situation in Egypt has greatly improved.”

The draw for tournament will be held at CAF's meeting next month in Cairo. It will split the eight teams into two groups of four. The top three finishers in the event – which doubles as the first CAF under-23 championship – qualify automatically for the London Olympics. The fourth-best team goes into a play-off with an Asian country for another berth.

Egypt has represented Africa at the Olympics football tournament a record 10 times while Gabon and Senegal are seeking a first appearance.