News brief

Namibia’s first woman president. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was sworn in as Namibia’s first female president on March 21, reaching the highest office nearly 60 years after she joined the liberation movement fighting for independence from apartheid South Africa. Ms. Nandi-Ndaitwah won an election in November to become one of just a handful of female leaders in Africa after the likes of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Joyce Banda of Malawi, and Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania. She is a veteran of the South West Africa People’s Organization, which led Namibia’s fight for independence and has been its ruling party ever since.