Ghanaian Diplomat Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah has been elected the African Union Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs & Social Development.

The decision was adopted at the 46 ordinary session of the executive council of the African Union, heralding other high-level engagements at the African Union Summit of Heads of States and Governments this weekend in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Currently the Ghana's immediate past Ambassador to Ethiopia, Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah is a diplomat who has served in a variety of roles for the foreign affairs department.

She became Minister/Head of Chancery of the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C., in the United States on November 17, 2012.

Before this, Amma had important political and civil service roles in Ghana. From October 2005 to February 2006, she was the Minister-Counsellor and acting High Commissioner at the Ghana High Commission in Canberra, Australia.

She oversaw a group of four officers that reopened Ghana's High Commission in Canberra when she was employed there, and she represented the Ghanaian government there until His Excellency Mr Kofi Sekyiamah, a substantive High Commissioner, arrived in March 2006.

In a post on its X handle, the African Union congratulated Ambassador Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah, who was captured in a memorable photograph with Ghana’s newly sworn-in Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

Ambassador Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah is taking up the post at a time when the African Union is fashioning out an action plan aimed at the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in Africa, which was validated in August 2024, in Accra, Ghana.

The Plan of Action is expected to guide the development of National Action Plans across AU member states, affording a harmonised approach in the reporting and reviewing mechanism, which is very vital for the continent.

Each year, tens of thousands of migrants from Africa undertake highly risky and irregular migration journeys in search of greener pastures.

The International Organization for Migration reports that in 2022 alone, nearly 2,800 deaths and disappearances were recorded about such journeys along the central Mediterranean and West African Atlantic zones.

In this new capacity, Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah is expected to expedite work on the plan which will tackle the crisis on the continent.