npx create-react-app with the following error code ERR_OSSL_PEM_NO_START_LINE - create-react-app

Question

I have recently started learning react. When I tried running npx create-react-app I was faced with the following error:
npm ERR! code ERR_OSSL_PEM_NO_START_LINE
npm ERR! error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2022-09-21T13_15_33_638Z-debug-0.log
Here is what is in my log file:
0 verbose cli C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js
1 info using npm#8.15.0
2 info using node#v16.17.0
3 timing npm:load:whichnode Completed in 1ms
4 timing config:load:defaults Completed in 1ms
5 timing config:load:file:C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\npmrc Completed in 6ms
6 timing config:load:builtin Completed in 7ms
7 timing config:load:cli Completed in 2ms
8 timing config:load:env Completed in 1ms
9 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\Documents\react\.npmrc Completed in 1ms
10 timing config:load:project Completed in 10ms
11 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\.npmrc Completed in 1ms
12 timing config:load:user Completed in 2ms
13 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\AppData\Roaming\npm\etc\npmrc Completed in 0ms
14 timing config:load:global Completed in 0ms
15 timing config:load:validate Completed in 2ms
16 timing config:load:credentials Completed in 1ms
17 timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 1ms
18 timing config:load Completed in 27ms
19 timing npm:load:configload Completed in 27ms
20 timing npm:load:mkdirpcache Completed in 1ms
21 timing npm:load:mkdirplogs Completed in 1ms
22 verbose title npm exec create-react-app .
23 verbose argv "exec" "--" "create-react-app" "."
24 timing npm:load:setTitle Completed in 2ms
25 timing config:load:flatten Completed in 3ms
26 timing npm:load:display Completed in 4ms
27 verbose logfile logs-max:10 dir:C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs
28 verbose logfile C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2022-09-21T13_15_33_638Z-debug-0.log
29 timing npm:load:logFile Completed in 9ms
30 timing npm:load:timers Completed in 0ms
31 timing npm:load:configScope Completed in 0ms
32 timing npm:load Completed in 45ms
33 silly logfile start cleaning logs, removing 2 files
34 timing arborist:ctor Completed in 1ms
35 silly logfile done cleaning log files
36 timing command:exec Completed in 70315ms
37 verbose stack Error: error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line
37 verbose stack at setKey (node:internal/tls/secure-context:92:11)
37 verbose stack at configSecureContext (node:internal/tls/secure-context:174:7)
37 verbose stack at Object.createSecureContext (node:_tls_common:121:3)
37 verbose stack at Object.connect (node:_tls_wrap:1626:48)
37 verbose stack at HttpsAgent.createConnection (node:https:147:22)
37 verbose stack at HttpsAgent.createConnection (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\agentkeepalive\lib\https_agent.js:29:49)
37 verbose stack at HttpsAgent.createSocket (node:_http_agent:347:26)
37 verbose stack at HttpsAgent.addRequest (node:_http_agent:294:10)
37 verbose stack at new ClientRequest (node:_http_client:326:16)
37 verbose stack at request (node:https:357:10)
38 verbose cwd C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\Documents\react
39 verbose Windows_NT 10.0.17134
40 verbose node v16.17.0
41 verbose npm v8.15.0
42 error code ERR_OSSL_PEM_NO_START_LINE
43 error error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line
44 verbose exit 1
45 timing npm Completed in 70545ms
46 verbose code 1
47 error A complete log of this run can be found in:
47 error C:\Users\tonny.nkhata\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2022-09-21T13_15_33_638Z-debug-0.log