The Malawi army will for the first time recruit women into its ranks this year, the army commander said on Monday. Lieutenant-General Joseph Chimbayo said some 35 young women will be enlisted before the end of this year to join the 9,400-strong uniformed forces, including the police. Malawi’s military expenditure is 1.5% of the country’s gross domestic product. Malawi is the only country in southern Africa without women soldiers. “We are preparing to integrate women soldiers in our army,” Chimbayo told a military gender sensitisation conference in the adminstrative capital Lilongwe on Monday. He added that the new recruits will not be involved in combat.