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Ghanaian appointed as UN’s first African woman force commander

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Major-General Anita Asmah is the first African woman to serve as a UN Force Commander. The 59-year-old is the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in December.

As a United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNDOF’s duties include maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria following the 1973 war and overseeing the disengagement agreement’s implementation.

Maj-Gen Asmah takes over from Nepal’s Lieutenant-General Nirmal Kumar Thapa, who served from July 2022 until June 2024.

Her impressive career includes more than 31 years in both UN Peacekeeping and the Ghana Armed Forces . Previously, Maj-Gen Asmah was UNDOF’s Deputy Force Commander from 2021 to 2023 and Acting Force Commander for a brief period from July to November 2022.

Maj-Gen Asmah emphasized her dedication to the mission, the region, and its people when reflecting on her time there. She also emphasized the strong relationships she has built with UN staff and local populations.

She does, however, see her new position as a chance to further address the issues facing the host communities.

She told the UN , in an interview, “I am happy and wholeheartedly accept this role to serve. I am so in love with the mission and the people. It is an opportunity to lessen their suffering.”

Maj-Gen Asmah emphasized the UNDOF team’s tenacity and competence, as well as her dependence on strategic leadership and diplomacy to accomplish the mission’s goals.

“I am up to the task,” she declared.

Maj-Gen Asmah, a fervent supporter of gender equality, commended the UN Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy (2018–2028) for increasing the number of women serving in peacekeeping. She urged women in the military and peacekeeping professions to perform to the best of their abilities and advocated for more incentives to increase parity.

She believes that “only by excelling in our responsibilities can we pave the way for more women to take on command positions and truly transform the landscape of peacekeeping operations.”

Her accomplishments demonstrate how Ghana was leading the way in Africa, Commodore Faustina Boakyewaa Anokye, former Deputy Force Commander for the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara ( MINURSO ), said of Maj-Gen Asmah’s appointment. She further called on nations that provide troops to assign more senior women to leadership positions.

An Aburi Girls’ Senior High School graduate, Maj-Gen Asmah is skilled in French and English and has degrees in law and arts from the University of Ghana.

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Trump’s sudden suspension of foreign aid puts millions of lives in Africa at risk

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  • The United States government funds HIV prevention, treatment and research programmes across the world but especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

  • US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on 20 January that halts foreign aid for 90 days.

  • The order, which is not clearly worded, has left in doubt the future of many life-saving HIV programmes in Africa.

The sudden decision by United States President Donald Trump to halt and review all foreign aid for 90 days could be devastating for HIV programmes in African countries. After Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, he signed numerous executive orders. One of these suspends aid to “foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organisations, international organisations, and contractors” pending review for whether it aligns with “American interests and … values”.

The order said, “no further [US] foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States”.

Foreign aid includes the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR. PEPFAR has saved millions of lives since it was launched by former president George W. Bush in 2003.

PEPFAR statistics show that at the end of 2024, it was providing life-saving antiretroviral treatment to nearly 21-million people across 55 countries, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa. PEPFAR is also delivering pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — which stops people from contracting HIV — to about 2.5 million people. In 2024, PEPFAR provided HIV testing to about 84-million people. It funds HIV treatment and intervention in Uganda, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and many others.

South Africa has about 5.6-million people on antiretroviral treatment. The medicines themselves are paid for by the South African government, but PEPFAR funds some of the staff at some ARV programmes. It also funds much of the prevention and information effort, including ARV user clubs, medical circumcision and public messaging.

South Africa does leading research on HIV and TB. Much of this is funded by the US National Institutes of Health. It’s unclear what the future status of this funding is.

It’s also unclear what the status is of money that has been committed. For example, some programmes get monthly tranches based on contracts that have already been signed. At least one project manager we spoke to said he wasn’t sure if commitments for February onwards would be arriving, and US government representatives who he deals with are themselves unsure.

This uncertainty is due to this phrase in the executive order, “shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements”. It’s unclear if already-committed disbursements are affected.

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, an infectious disease scientist at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at UCT, said that it’s unclear whether the PEPFAR funding will be reduced or stopped but that the outcome in African countries could be “disastrous”.

Bekker said that HIV treatment “doesn’t stand still” and that treatment, PrEP, and quality healthcare have to keep on getting to people.

Bekker also said that other countries in Africa are far more dependent on PEPFAR funding than South Africa. For example, Malawi, which has a minimal health budget.

“There is no doubt our own national governments need to step up. We know there needs to be more self-reliance,” she said, but added that the sudden stop of donor funding can be “disastrous”.

study from 2024 looking at the rate of mortality amongst South African adults who experienced interruption in antiretroviral treatment, shows that interrupting antiretroviral treatment leads to much greater risk of death.

Over the years, Bekker says, PEPFAR funding has also gradually transitioned from where there was an emergency situation, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the early 2000s, to helping countries’ health systems cope.

PEPFAR allocations in Malawi for 2024 and 2025 are $180-million and $178-million respectively. It is one of two of the biggest funders of HIV interventions in Malawi, along with the Global Fund, according to the National Aids Commission (NAC) of Malawi. In a recent strategic plan, the NAC noted that, “There is an urgent need to sustain and accelerate the national response between 2020 and 2025 in order to put Malawi on the path towards ending AIDS as a public health threat in Malawi by 2030.”

It is unclear how Trump’s order to pause and review foreign aid will affect PEPFAR in the future. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) media office did not respond to questions by the time of publication.

Trump also issued an executive order withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to Reuters there is a 12-month notice period for the US, the WHO’s largest funder, to leave the organisation and stop all financial contributions to its work.

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South African president signs controversial land seizure law

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a bill allowing land seizures by the state without compensation – a move that has put him at odds with some members of his government.

Black people only own a small fraction of farmland nationwide more than 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid – the majority remains with the white minority.

This has led to frustration and anger over the slow pace of reform.

While Ramaphosa’s ANC party hailed the law as a “significant milestone” in the country’s transformation, some members of the coalition government say they may challenge it in court.

The law “outlines how expropriation can be done and on what basis” by the state, the government says.

It replaces the pre-democratic Expropriation Act of 1975, which placed an obligation on the state to pay owners it wanted to take land from, under the principle of “willing seller, willing buyer”.

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Nigeria’s female cricket team is from West Africa to qualify for a World Cup

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Nigeria’s women’s under-19 cricket team, the Junior Yellow Greens , made history by qualifying for the ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup, which is being held in Malaysia . The Junior Yellow Greens’ qualification made it the first female cricket team from Nigeria and West Africa as a whole to qualify for a World Cup.

The team’s outstanding performance in the regional qualifiers won them a spot. Despite a rain-soaked final match, they beat Zimbabwe on points earned during the group stages.

With this victory, Nigeria secured their place in Malaysia and made their second-ever appearance in a cricket World Cup. The male U-19 team competed in the 2020 edition in South Africa.

Victory Igbinedion, Naomi Memeh, Anointed Akhigbe, Amusa Kehinde, Omosigho Eguakun, Umoh Inyene, Beauty Oguai, Jessica Bieni, Usen Peace, Adeshola Adekunle, Deborah Bassey, Christabel Chukwuonye, Peculiar Agboya, Lilian Ude, and Lucky Piety are among the 15 players on the female team.

They now hope to make it to the semi-finals.

Brila reports that despite Nigeria’s 41-run (DLS method) loss to South Africa on Wednesday, their thrilling two-run victory over New Zealand earlier in the tournament and a shared point with Samoa guaranteed them a place as the second-best team in Group C.

The team will now face England on January 25 and Ireland on January 29, as they continue their quest for a historic semi-final appearance.

The 2025 ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup, which runs from January 18 to February 2, started with 16 teams exhibiting some of the best young talents in women’s cricket .

This year’s tournament, the second edition of this worldwide event, features the top four teams from 2023—India, England, Australia, and New Zealand—along with four debutants: hosts Malaysia, Nepal, Samoa, and Nigeria.

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