Gambia's Bensouda named on world's most influential people list

The US-based Time magazine has named Fatou Bom Bensouda, the Gambian-born chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its '100 Most Influential People in the World’ list for the year 2012.

Ms Bensouda, 51, who will take office on June 16 as the first African woman to assume the office was also in January named ‘Person of the Year’ by the Gambia News and Report weekly magazine.

She and President President Goodluck Jonathan are the only Africans on the Time list this year.

According to the magazine, the 100 people inspire, entertain, challenge and change the world and are selected from breakouts, pioneers, moguls, leaders and icons.

Ms Bensouda falls in a list of leaders of prominence that includes like Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader; Basad Al-Assad, president of Syria; Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader; Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state; Angele Merkel, German chancellor and Barack Obama, US president.