The Confederation of African Football has decided to move the 2013 African Cup of Nations from Libya due to security reasons, a CNN report claims.

According to the report the decision has been taken following the recent uprisings against Muammar Gaddafi. “Caf have decided to move the tournament to another country because of the current instability in Libya,” an anonymous Caf official told CNN on Monday.

“South Africa have asked officially to host the tournament. Also, Egypt and other countries are interested in the matter. We will make our final decision before announcing the tournament’s qualification draw next September,” he added.

But the report runs contrary to a decision by Caf on Saturday to monitor the situation until September when the executive committee meets.

“Of course we are thinking about it as a matter of priority,” Caf Secretary-General Hicham El Amrani told the BBC. “All the tournaments that Libya has agreed to host – not only Africa Cup of Nations but also the CHAN [African Nations Championship] and the Futsal Championship next year are today still [to be] held in Libya.

“At the same time the Caf Executive Committee is thinking about ‘Plan Bs or Plan Cs’.

“We agreed an internal timeline [for the] latest moment at which we should decide on switching the tournament, to another venue but as of today the Nations Cup of 2013 is still in Libya.” El Amrani did not want to make the timescale public but pointed out that Caf’s Executive Committee is due to meet in September this year.

Caf recently moved the 2011 African Youth Championship, which was scheduled to be played in Libya, to South Africa for the same reason.