RWANDAN NURSE, BREAKS RECORD BECOME THE FIRST AFRICAN FEMALE REFEREE TO OFFICIATE AT THE FIFA WORLD CUP.

RWANDAN NURSE, BREAKS RECORD BECOME THE FIRST AFRICAN FEMALE REFEREE TO OFFICIATE AT THE FIFA WORLD CUP.

Salima Mukansanga is a nurse by profession. Although she’s wanted to become a professional basketball player as a young girl. But she was told that she was not old enough to be a part of an U17 national side and to wait. Then she pursued her bachelor’s degree in nursing after which she turned to football.

She came across an advert announcing football refereeing training and took her chance – a decision which put her on a path to becoming a pioneer: the first woman from Rwanda to officiate at a FIFA Women’s World Cup and now the first woman ever to officiate at the men’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

On January 18, Mukansanga took charge of the group stage game between Guinea and Zimbabwe at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde.

Mukansanga was the first woman to officiate in the African Cup of Nations in 2022, leading an all-female officiating squad that included Fatiha Jermoumi (Morocco), Carine Atemzabong (Cameroon), and Bouchra Karboubi (Morocco) as the VAR.

She is the youngest of the three selected women referees. The Rwandan is just 33-year-old.

It was Mukansanga, that officiated the world’s highest-altitude football match on Mount Kilimanjaro in 2017.