Stronger, more connected: new ICC YAAF Regional Reps look to widen Africa’s arbitration network

Effective arbitration and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) frameworks can build commercial trust, provide greater legal certainty, and support investment across evolving African economies, says Thierry Tobossi.

A business lawyer and dispute resolution practitioner, Tobossi works across Benin and Togo, and is among eighteen new African Regional Representatives who have been named this month to the International Chamber of Commerce Young Arbitration and ADR Forum (ICC YAAF), for its upcoming 2026–2028 mandate.

“Beyond the recognition, this appointment is a multidimensional responsibility that I embrace with rigor and resolve,” says Tobossi, sharing his appointment as an ICC YAAF Regional Representative on LinkedIn. He says he will look to use his expertise to establish arbitration and ADR as “vital drivers of commercial trust, legal certainty, and investment optimization across Benin, Togo, and the wider African continent”.

Notably, Tobossi’s appointment welcomes the West African country of Benin into the ICC YAAF representative network for the first time, and is part of a significant expansion of its global footprint with its Regional Representatives for 2026-2028.

The new cohort comprises 116 Regional Representatives based in 87 cities across 73 countries, representing 78 nationalities and speaking 20 languages. Of 13 countries represented for the first time, four are African: Benin, Congo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

For the new African representatives, however, a wider map is only part of the story.

Their ambitions span professional development and knowledge-sharing, stronger links between African and international arbitration communities, and greater linguistic and jurisdictional diversity. Casablanca-based LPF Counsel attorney Mohammed Tamouro said representing Africa brought both an honour and a responsibility, with his priorities including developing young dispute resolution practitioners and building collaborative ties. “I look forward to working alongside you to elevate Africa’s voice in the global arbitration and ADR landscape,” he said.

Karen Rono, founder and managing partner of Chelangat Law Advocates in Nairobi, similarly sees connectivity as central to her new opportunity as an ICC YAAF Regional Representative for Africa. “I’m excited for what lies ahead and, most importantly, for the opportunity to contribute to a stronger and more connected arbitration and ADR community across our continent,” she said.

That diversity is not only geographical. Cambule & Américo associate Elton Dimbana in Maputo described his appointment as “above all, a call to service”, while welcoming greater Portuguese-speaking representation, which he said strengthens “the Lusophone voice in a space historically shaped by English and French”.

Paris-based Darci international arbitration associate Adam Malek sees another opportunity for bridge-building. With French-Algerian roots, his appointment carries particular personal significance. “I am particularly looking forward to strengthening connections with Algeria and contributing to greater engagement between the Algerian, African and international arbitration communities,” he shared.

The 2026-2028 ICC YAAF cohort stretches across a range of African legal markets.

JFC Avocats Cameroun managing partner Winnie Nantcha Ngoufack is based in Douala, while Kikangala & Associates tax advisor and mining consultant Emery Sango Kabonga represents Lubumbashi. Sam Okudzeto & Associates senior associate Isaac Aburam Lartey is based in Accra, while Dentons Mauritius partner and attorney-at-law Bhomitrajeet Ramlochund is based in Port Louis.

Nigeria has two representatives, Compos Mentis Legal Practitioners managing partner Emokiniovo Dafe-Akpedeye in Abuja and Templars managing counsel Stanley U. Nweke-Eze in Lagos, while South Africa is represented by Webber Wentzel associate Caitlin Leahy and Bowmans associate Yanga Keva.

For Leahy, accepting the new ICC YAAF role also means stepping beyond her professional comfort zone. “Balancing this responsibility alongside the demands of practice will undoubtedly be a challenge, but it is one that I am ready to embrace.”

Ugandan in-house counsel Edith Twinamatsiko, who is also the founder of African Women in Arbitration alongside being a Legal Counsel at the National Social Security Fund, says that she is looking forward to contributing to the ICC YAAF global network, along with “supporting young practitioners and strengthening connections across the ICC Arbitration and ADR community”.

Muvingi & Mugadza Legal Practitioners managing partner Nyasha Brighton Munyuru becomes the first ICC YAAF Regional Representative from Zimbabwe, while Zambia’s first-ever Regional Representative is AMW and Co Legal Practitioners partner Kate Nalondwa-Mpengula, who is based in Ndola and Kitwe Copperbelt Province.

Over the past weekend, Nalondwa-Mpengula was co-organiser of, and a speaker at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Ciarb) Zambia Branch’s Women in Alternative Dispute Resolution 7th anniversary event in Lusaka, where she says she enjoyed sharing “insights on the growing opportunities in adjudication and the skills needed to build expertise in this increasingly important area of dispute resolution”.

The new cohort of ICC YAAF Regional Representatives for Africa reaches beyond the continent itself, with Côte d’Ivoire Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain associate director Yassine Khadidjatou Sangare, and Malek and Medici senior associate Chiraz Abid both in Paris, along with Head of the Africa chapter Nwamara Inegbenoise.

Inegbenoise is the Deputy Director, Arbitration and ADR, Africa for ICC Dispute Resolution Services in Paris, where she supports strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening dispute resolution frameworks across Africa and enhancing the continent’s engagement with the global arbitration and ADR community.

Established in 2008 and open to dispute resolution practitioners aged 40 and under globally, ICC YAAF now connects more than 45,800 members through its seven regional chapters. The incoming 2026-2028 Regional Representatives will formally take over from the outgoing cohort at the 10th ICC YAAF Global Conference in London on 16 October, being held alongside ICC UK’s annual arbitration conference..

While the ICC may be headquartered in Europe, and the formal handover may take place in London, the work that follows will stretch across a far greater map – turning broader representation into new opportunities and, as Rono puts it, “a stronger and more connected arbitration and ADR community” across the African continent.