Rwandan referee Salima Mukansanga is among four African referees selected to officiate the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup that will take place in Australia and New Zealand from 20 July to 20 August.

Mukansanga, who is fresh from the FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar, will be handling matches at the tournament as a centre referee alongside her African compatriots Vincentia Amedome (Togo), Bouchra Karboubi (Morocco) and Akhona Makalima (South Africa).

All match officials selected to officiate the tournament will participate in preparatory seminars (in Doha and Montevideo), where they will be briefed on reviewing and analysing video clips of real match situations and taking part in practical training sessions with players, which will be filmed to enable participants to receive instant feedback from instructors.

A total of 32 nations will compete in the Women’s World Cup for the first time. Introduced as a 12-team tournament in 1991, the number of participating countries expanded to 16 at the USA 1999 and 24 at Canada 2015.

Mukansanga was an official at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France. In 2022, She became the first woman to referee at the African Cup of Nations.

The Olympics 2022, FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, Africa Women Cup of Nations and CAF Women's Champions League are amog other tournament that she previously handled.

In 2022, she was one of three women referees selected to officiate at the FIFA World Cup hosted by Qatar. She was the fourth official when France defeated Australia 4–1 during the group stages.

In December 2022, BBC listed Mukansanga among 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2022.