Kenyan environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

© AP via Yahoo!

Maathai, Kenya's deputy environment minister, is the first African woman to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901. She has been recognized for her struggle for democracy, and gained recent attention for a campaign planting 30 million tress to stave off deforestation. "We believe that Maathai is a strong voice speaking for the best forces in Africa to promote peace and good living conditions on that continent," the Nobel committee said in its citation. [Yahoo]

Maathai won the prize, worth $1.36 million, from a record field of 194 candidates. Named after Swedish philanthropist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, the prize is handed out in Oslo on Dec. 10. [Reuters]

"I am very excited. I really don't know what to say," Mrs Maathai told reporters when she found out. The prize committee says Mrs Maathi, a government minister in Kenya, says she is an example for all Africans fighting for democracy and peace. Last year the Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, 56, became the first Muslim woman to be afforded the honour. She won the $1.4m (£800,000) prize for her work for the rights of women and children in Iran. [BBC]

Maathai, 64, is also the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Previous winners from Africa include U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who shared the prize with the United Nations in 2001, and Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk from South Africa in 1993. "Thank you so much, I am so surprised," she told Norwegian state television. "I am absolutely overwhelmed and very emotionally charged, really. I did not expect this. The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources and our resources become scarce, we fight over that," she said, starting to cry. "I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance." [CNN]

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