Nima Elbagir

Nima Elbagir was born in the year 1978.  Nima Elbagir was born in Sudan and was taken to the United Kingdom when she was 3 years old. She later went back to Sudan at the age of 8 years. After six years, she returned back to Britain. Her travels around the world are the mirror of the turbulent politics in her homeland. Her father was in the opposition and a journalist and he was jailed before her birth. He was then released and the family went into exile.  Because of being in Britain and Sudan in different occasions, her education was split into half between the school in Britain and in Sudan. Nima Elbagir is of Northern Sudanese origins, his family was from Nubian and her father is an Al-Jazira.


Education

Nima Elbagir got her education in Sudan and then in England. She holds a BSc. in the Philosophy from The London School of Economic. She understands English and Arabic. She had a long passion in journalism and that is what made her pursue her dreams in this field. Her mother was the first publisher in Sudan while her father is a newspaper publisher in his homeland. Her education was tone between Sudan and Britain. She went to London school of Economics where she pursued as a journalist.

Career

Elbagir started her career in Journalism with the Reuters in 2002. She was reporting in Sudan where she was in charge of covering the simmering conflict in the Darfur region. She moved to the broadcast journalism during the year 2005 when she joined More4News. Here she reported on exclusive stories which included the allegation of the rape committed by the African Union solders monitoring peace within Darfur.  She did the interview with Aegis Security Company which was a whistleblower in Iraq Trophy Videos. She interviewed Jacob Zuma in the run up on the rape trial that he was facing. She had the privilege to interview the Egyptian Justice Minister who proposed that President Hosni Mubarak receives a death sentence during the political revolution in that country. Nima Elbagir was the only journalist from the West who was reporting about the US bombing In Somalia by January 2007. 

Nima Elbagir did a documentary where she reported about Meet the Janjaweed in the Unreported World. She was able to get the access to Hemeti or Mohammed Hamdan Dogolo known as few commanders of Arab Janjaweed.  She filmed the ID cards of Sudanese Army and the Chinese manufacture weaponry, which gave credence, being  the first evidence to the involvement of Sudanese government and usage of ammunitions from  China in the conflict.

She has reported on other major happenings in Africa that are risky and life threatening. Her chronograph of the Ebola outbreak which ravaged a number of West African countries is one such reporting. In her coverage, she mastered the courage to visit the quarantined areas in Liberia to capture an accurate perspective of how the outbreak had affected the general population in these countries. Her boldness in reporting matters is what has made her an outstanding journalist in the world.

She was also been the first journalist to report to the world some of the grueling incidents such as the kidnapping of the 250 girls by the northern Nigeria by Boko Haram militants. She was the first international journalist to report from the village where the incident happened and she also interviewed two girls who were able to run away from the militants.

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She has also brought to the attention of the world many reports that sought human justice like that of the woman sentenced to death for renouncing her religious faith. This helped the matter to be brought to the international attention. The woman was saved as the international pressure mounted on the Sudanese government, forcing it to give her a reprieve.

She has also traversed through turmoil engulfed nations in Africa like the Central Africa Republic, her native homeland, Sudan, the militant-infested Somalia, the disorder in Libya and other troubled nations. She covered the tribal region of the remote Afghanistan reporting on their situation, notwithstanding the risks involved in reporting from such areas. She has helped the world get a glimpse of the real situation on the ground. Her passion for her job is so high that she will do anything to keep you informed. Her rich cultural background makes her fit in reporting scenario in most of the Islamic countries, where no western journalist could dare venture into.

Nima Elbagir has been a force to reckon with in the journalism profession. She is big inspiration to prospective journalists especially the females ones. She has set the standards so high for other to follow on her steps. Her work is exceptional and it has an impact on the status of the world. Her achievements will last in the memories of many for what she has been to achieve in the course of her journalistic profession.

She is currently a CNN correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya, aged 35 years.

Awards

Nima Elbagir has been honored with a number of awards for her fearless and exceptional reporting. She has won the specialist reporting award from the Royal Television Society to honor her reporting in war torn areas fearlessly. She also has been awarded with two awards by the Foreign Press Association. She has also been nominated in other awards for her prowess in doing her job.

Working as a television correspondent who has received numerous awards. She started to work for CNN based in London. In the year 2008, she had got two awards from Foreign Press Association, for TV news Story of the year and the broadcast Journalist of the Year. She had also been nominated for more other awards which include the Amnesty Award for the Human Right Journalism with the One World Broadcast Award. In the year 2008, she had been shortlisted to be the young journalist for the year from the Royal Television Society Awards.  In the year 2006, she became the Rising Reporting Talent.

Personal Life

She is now engaged to be married to a British diplomat whom she met while in Sudan. Even if she never applied for a British citizenship, with her marriage, she is thinking about applying for it.  His fiancé speaks Arabic even if he is not an oriental. While growing up, Nima Elbagir was not allowed to speak English at home to avoid having to speak Arabic with an English accent.  She has a twitter account where you can get information of what she is up to. 

Last Modified: Apr 8, 2020


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