The withdrawal of Togo two days before the tournament began, after a terrorist attack on their bus upon arriving in Angola, reduced the number of participating nations to 15.

Egypt won the tournament, their seventh ACN title and an unprecedented third in a row, beating Ghana 1–0 in the final.

The 2014 tournament was pushed forward to 2013 and subsequently held in odd-numbered years to avoid year-clash with the FIFA World Cup.

Mohamed Benouza Hélder Martins de Carvalho Coffi Codjia Noumandiez Doué Essam Abdel-Fatah Koman Coulibaly Rajindraparsad Seechurn Khalil Al Ghamdi Badara Diatta Eddy Maillet Daniel Bennett Jerome Damon Khalid Abdel Rahman Kokou Djaoupe Kacem Bennaceur Muhmed Ssegonga Inácio Manuel Candido Desire Gahungu Evarist Menkouande Nasser Sadek Abdel Nabi Angesom Ogbamariam Ayuba Haruna Hassan Kamranifar Fooad El Maghrabi Moffat Champiti Redouane Achik Peter Edibe Mohammed Al Ghamdi Enock Molefe Celestin Ntagungira Bechir Hassani Kenneth Chichenga If two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria:[6] All times given as local time (UTC+1)

The Mascot for the Tournament is Palanquinha, which was inspired by the Giant Sable Antelope (Hippotragus niger variani), a national symbol and a treasured animal in Angola.

A spokesman for the Togolese football federation said assistant coach Améleté Abalo and press officer Stanislaud Ocloo had died as well as the driver.

The players initially decided to compete to commemorate the victims in this way, but were immediately ordered to return by the Togolese government.

[11] Following their departure from Angola, Togo were formally disqualified from the tournament after failing to fulfil their opening Group B game against Ghana on 11 January.