Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) shared the spoils on Saturday in Tangier to maintain the drama in Group D over the identity of the pool winners following Benin's victory over Botswana.
It was the third time Senegal and the DRC had clashed in 18 months following two meetings during qualifiers for next year's World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Senegal won four of the six points up for grabs in those encounters.
And Senegal enjoyed the lion's share of the chances in the first-half at the Stade Ibn-Batouta.
Bayern Munich striker Nicolas Jackson stabbed the ball wide after good work down the left from Sadio Mane and the DRC goalkeeper Lionel Nzau Mpasi got down swiftly to parry away Pape Gueye's long-range effort.
But it was the DRC who opened the scoring on the hour mark when Cedric Bakambu prodded home from close range.
Ten minutes later, Mané levelled and his side drove on in search of the winner.
Both defences held firm for a result that leaves Senegal top on goal difference on four points ahead of the DRC.
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Benin boast three points after Yohan Roche's first-half strike furnished a team from the country with its first win in the group stages at a Cup of Nations tournament in five visits.
“This victory is important to us because it gives us a chance to qualify for the next round," said Benin boss Gernot Rohr.
"We proved today that we have have progressed defensively," added the 72-year-old German.
"We didn't concede many opportunities and we recovered well, especially on the offence."
The strike was redemption for Roche who was at fault when Benin conceded a goal in the opening day defeat to the DRC on Tuesday.
"I am happy for Yohan," added Rohr after the match at the Stade Moulay Abdellah Annex in Rabat.
"He has recovered from that mistake against the DRC and in the next game he's man-of-the-match."
Rohr's Botswana counterpart, Morena Ramoreboli, rued his side's lack of precision.
“In the first 45 minutes, we got one opportunity which I think we should have buried and unfortunately from very same opportunity, we conceded the other side.
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"It is unfortunate that this is a game of football that works on who scored more goals and who made more mistakes and in this situation we made one mistake which resulted in us conceding a goal."
On Saturday evening in Rabat, Tanzania and Uganda stage an East African derby to relaunch their Cup of Nations campaigns.
Both sides lost their respective opening games to Nigeria and Tunisia who play on Saturday night in Fez.
