NEW from us in the NYT London Bureau:
A visual timeline of how racist and violent anti-immigrant riots flared in more than a dozen towns and cities across the U.K.
VERY proud to announce our investigation into the human rights violations of the Wagner Russian mercenaries in Libya has been nominated for two Amnesty awards as Best Investigation and Feature
I have to say this Libya flooding is one of the worst incidents I’ve ever covered in my career and I’ve been covering wars and natural disasters for nearly 11 years.
🚨PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENT🚨
I will be joining the New York Times London newsroom as a Senior Video Journalist on the 1st of November!
I am leaving the BBC after almost 11 years so I will be dearly missing my colleagues, but I look forward to starting this new and exciting role!
Our latest investigation from Syria looks into the brutal murder of Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf, using
#OSINT
tools and exclusive eye witness testimonies to find her killer
MAJOR updates on the Russia/Wagner mutiny fallout:
Wagner is still actively recruiting fighters, which means they might not disband.
Prighozin is not signing MoD contracts, which could mean Wagner fighters won't be involved in the Ukraine war anymore.
If the Wagner Group loses support from the Russian MoD and gets disbanded, what happens to its global network and the African governments the group has been supporting?
Analysis from me and
@BeverlyOchieng
for
@BBCAfrica
THREAD
As Wagner and Prighozin start their rebellion against the Russian MoD, I urge everyone to read my pre-Ukraine invasion investigation into Wagner’s operations in Libya to get a sense of their capabilities
Last year we identified Vakha (Vladimir Andanov) as one of the executors of a Libyan family in 2019 who were kidnapped by himself and other members of the Wagner group from their home in Tripoli
Today one of the most famous Wagner mercenary, nicknamed "Vaha", was killed in Ukraine. He fought in Donbass in 2014-16 (where he executed prisoners of war), but also in Libya & Syria.
And the winner of the BROADCAST NEWS category is….
🏆
@BBCArabic
🏆 for their reporting on the Idlib ‘double tap’ air strike
Well done to
@Nader_SM
, Jasmine Bonshor & team
View the entry here:
For UK-based viewers, our full film in English investigating Wagner in Libya is now available. It’s been an absolute honour to work with
@nicksturdee
@paul_mitchell26
@BettinaWaked
and Chris Mitchell + of course our colleagues in BBC Russia.
So this account is using his Twitter blue subscription to hunt down Saudi gov dissidents in London offering a cash reward.
This is why that subscription has always been a terrible idea as it gives the impression some accounts are official, when they are just gov trolls.
My swan song for the BBC: I investigate the flawed response from local authorities in Derna to the flooding that killed over 4000 and how it's likely to have increased casualties
Excited to be starting a new role on attachment as Senior Journalist in the World Service Languages Deployments team, delivering original journalism for the BBC's 42 languages
My
#OSINT
investigation into a war crime in Idlib - a double tap aerial attack blamed on Russian airforce. It targeted a civilian street market and killed dozens.
After investigating an execution in Libya and naming a Wagner merc as responsible, Putin's warlord Prighozin tried to sue us, denying the man was a merc...
... then the man gets killed in Ukraine, where he was fighting as a merc...
Important interview by our reporter in Cairo
@sallynabil
with director of
@EIPR
who has just been released. He talks about conditions of detention and whether he will continue doing his job after what has happened
في حديث لبي بي سي بعد إخلاء سبيله، قال جاسر عبد الرازق المدير التنفيذي للمبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية إن وضع حقوق الإنسان في مصر حاليا هو الأسوأ على الإطلاق.
Saudi's are tweeting a picture of the Pyramids draped in Saudi flag 'welcoming MBS to Egypt'. This has been denied by the Egyptian authorities who said it never happened
#FakeNews
Important update: an arrest warrant has been announced by Tripoli authorities for Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam who's been linked to the Russians, for Wagner's warcrimes in Libya
There are continued calls and there has been international pressure for Wagner operatives to leave Libya. There are no indications they intend to, and it seems now they using Libya as their gateway to rest of Africa.
One of the Wagner high profile fatalities that has been reported recently in Ukraine is Vladimir Andanov, or Vakha, seen below in Libya 2019 as identified by a civilian eye witness we spoke to that accused him of executing 3 members of his family
Reporting from
@HananMSalah
at
@HRW
is now able to confirm all 35 locations were indeed mined mostly in civilian houses and one mine was hidden under a sofa.
Libyan deminers were able to use the precise coordinates identified in the tablet to assist in the demining.
One of the Wagner high profile fatalities that has been reported recently in Ukraine is Vladimir Andanov, or Vakha, seen below in Libya 2019 as identified by a civilian eye witness we spoke to that accused him of executing 3 members of his family
Judging from the crater, looks like so-called 'bunker-buster' ammunition was used here. We saw these type of craters quite often after Russian targeting of hospitals in Syria.
Extremely important work here by Marianna and the rest of the team at the Disinfo unit. I often hear from Arab female colleague how bad it can get online..
Many women I'm interviewing - especially those also subject to racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic hate on social media - are having experiences like this.
I'm investigating the real-world harm of this abuse online - from silencing to offline violence. Get in touch if affected.
We’ve been investigating her death, on the hands of the
#TFSA
, since the day she was murdered. Local access was difficult due to an ever shifting front line in NE Syria.
We were able to identify Andanov as one the executors when a surviving eye witness I interviewed was able to identify the picture below, which we placed to a location round of the corner from the execution spot and only hours after it happened
The journalism with exceptional impact award goes to
@BBCArabic
, BBC News Russia & BBC Digital News for their very timely Inside The Wagner Group
Congrats
@Nader_SM
Paul Mitchell,
@nicksturdee
and Ilya Barabanov
#AmnestyMediaAwards
Extremely proud and humbled to be a finalist for the
#AmnestyMediaAwards
Gaby Rado award for New Journalist, for my work on investigating grave human rights abuses in the long-suffering war zones of the Middle East.
Proud to see that our investigation ‘Blind Faith’ has won the Golden Award at the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
#ARIJ23
annual event.
This was the last long-form investigative documentary I produced for the BBC before joining the NYT this year.
I travelled to
The BBC World Service is launching an emergency Radio programme on Friday to serve audiences in
#Gaza
.
Similar to its previous emergency service that was launched to cover the war in Sudan, the ‘Gaza Today’ programme will run for 3 months.
Today marks 2 years since 26 young Libyan cadets were killed in a drone strike.
Last year we uncovered new evidence that implicated the UAE in the attack:
Despite our investigation, no action has been taken and families are still looking for justice.
My family's deadly escape from
#Raqqa
: Ahmed tells us his story. Find out how it ends on
@BBCWorld
: produced by myself, animated by
@AlessandraCugno
from
@CodaStory
, and drawings by Sofiya Voznaya.
Last year, we met the fifth eye witness who positively identified Andanov as being one of his family executors and described how the terrible events unfolded.
Watch our award-winning investigation below:
Re-upping our investigation into Wagner war crimes in
#Libya
as the EU imposes sanctions on the group for 'gross violations of human rights' in
#Syria
,
#Africa
and
#Ukraine
Long-read:
Full film (Eng subs):
فرض الاتحاد الأوروبي عقوبات جديدة على مجموعة #فاغنر الروسية بسبب "انتهاكات جسيمة لحقوق الإنسان" ارتكبها عناصر المجموعة.
وكشف تحقيق لبي بي سي عربي، نُشر في وقت سابق من هذا العام، عن جرائم ضد الإنسانية ارتكبها مرتزقة فاغنر في #ليبيا
الوثائقي الكامل👇
Vladimir Andanov was already suspected of involvement in possible extra-judicial killings of prisoners of war during the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014/2015
A protest in Tripoli organised by families of students killed in last years bombing of the military academy. We investigated the deadly drone strike in the piece below
Just came from Ukraine where I was working on a number of investigations with
@bbcukrainian
- watch this space for some impactful journalism - coming soon!
Congratulations to everyone who has made the shortlist for the AIBs 2021. It is now down to our judges to decide on the overall winners and highly commended entries.
Haftar’s Russian Mercenaries: Inside the Wagner Group by Nader Ibrahim, Ilya Barabanov and Nick Sturdee for BBC Arabic wins the Television Documentary category 🏆🌟
#OWMAwards2022
I'm taking on a new role in the investigations unit led by
@simoncoxreports
, a new unit within the digital docs team that's edited by
@muskhalili
. Have an idea of an original investigation in the MENA region? Get in touch (securely).
For English speaking followers: director of
@EIPR
talks to
@sallynabil
for
@bbcworldservice
just hours after he was released about how he was arrested, detained, and on the difficult current situation of human rights activism in Egypt.
Gasser Abdel Razek speaks to the BBC via
@YouTube
Hours after his release, Gasser told us about his arrest and detention period. The executive director of
@EIPR
says the situation of human rights in
#Egypt
is at 'its most difficult time.'
Our film will be out shortly. My first reporting effort and an extremely successful collaboration with our colleagues in the BBC's Russian service. More details shortly with links to the film in English/Russian/Arabic.
Haftar’s Russian Mercenaries: Inside the Wagner Group.. This film by
@BBCArabic
uncovers evidence of war crimes carried out in Libya by mercenaries working for the Wagner Group. Watch this documentary live 21:00 Libya time (19:00 GMT)
Great to see our Wagner investigation findings making an impact on the ground and potentially saving lives.
We had shared with Libyan deminers 35 locations that were marked on the Wagner tablet we got hold of as suspected mined areas
Wagner Group used banned landmines & booby traps during 2019-2020, adding to the deadly legacy of unexploded ordnance scattered in the southern suburbs of Libya’s capital Tripoli and making it dangerous for people to return to their homes
New from
@hrw
The Libyan family were kidnapped from their home in the village of Espia, held overnight, then taken to an outhouse where they were executed. 3 were killed, another lost a leg, and the fifth survived unharmed by playing dead
Our full doc on Sudan's Uprising and its historic sit-in is now available via
@YouTube
available with English/Arabic captions #توثيق_مجزرة_القياده_العامه
@Lina_Serene
Lina my humble opinion is that we shouldn’t publicise this day too much. It feels like we’re helping the coward that wanted to spread fear on that day.
@RealRameyDawoud
On the road from Omdurman toward Khartoum's General Command - where it appears demonstrators are massing. H/T to
@6a7a_hussein
for 📹
Geolocation:
Earlier this year, I travelled to Libya on a shoot to investigate the Wagner group and their impact on local population. Below, the director of our film
@nicksturdee
writes an excellent long-read for
@newlinesmag
about the making of our doc:
Epic reportage on the Wagner Group, building off
@nicksturdee
's deep-dive into what was found on a tablet recovered in Libya. The Russian merc's reading list includes "Women: A Textbook for Men," "The Ultimate Guide to Kink" -- oh, and "Mein Kampf":
@mariannaspring
@BBCPanorama
Marianna! sorry to hear about the nastiness... your team is doing excellent work please keep going and ignore all the trolls 👏👏
It is upsetting to see that Andanov was able to travel to participate in the invasion of Ukraine even though he was suspected of committing war crimes in Libya in 2019 and earlier in the Donbas region in 2014/2015
With everything that's happening in Ukraine, we need to be reminded of the atrocities being committed by Russian mercenaries outside of Europe, so this is very timely.
Yesterday our investigation into the human rights abuses by Russian mercenaries in Libya won the Amnesty Outstanding Impact award. We will continue investigating war crimes committed by PMCs around the world to bring some sort of justice to the victims.
The journalism with exceptional impact award goes to
@BBCArabic
, BBC News Russia & BBC Digital News for their very timely Inside The Wagner Group
Congrats
@Nader_SM
Paul Mitchell,
@nicksturdee
and Ilya Barabanov
#AmnestyMediaAwards
Syrian-Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was killed on 12 October 2019
A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel force was accused of killing her, but they deny it
But
@BBCArabic
have found evidence which tells a different story:
One of my last bits of work with the BBC before I join the NYT, looking at destruction caused by the earthquake in Morocco through satellite imagery - put together with the brilliant
@peterballnews
Libya, Jan 2020. CCTV shows a group of young men in the last 5 seconds of their lives.
Moments later, they’re hit by a strike for which no one has ever claimed responsibility.
What hit them? Where did it come from? Which foreign powers are secretly fuelling Libya’s war?
THREAD
“An enterprising and original piece of journalism” – Under Poisoned Skies
@BBCWorld
for
@BBCArabic
wins Current Affairs – International. Congratulations to the team
#RTSAwards
ياريت اخوتنا المسيحين ياخدوا بالهم اليومين الى جايين دول
عشان الساده الارهابيين ممكن يعملوا حاجة
تغطى على الحوار المهم اللى عملوا سيادة الرئيس
مع قناة CBS الامريكية
Escalation on the streets of Khartoum and Omdurman after sham TMC investigation into June 3rd killings concludes it was ‘unknown shooters’ that stormed the sit in
#Sudan
TMC’s investigation committee releases findings surrounding June 3 Khartoum sit-in dispersal/massacre:
- unknown shooters fired at protesters
- 87 ppl died in total, 17 at the sit-in site
- no incidents of sexual assault occurred
#SudanUprising
Not to forget the contributions of my dear colleagues on the ground in Libya, and
@oimho
,
@CandaceRondeaux
and her team,
@Jack_Mrgln
and his team. WELL DONE ALL.
🇷🇺RA-82038/
#RFF9925
, a Russian Air Force Antonov An-124, spotted on 🛰️Sentinel-2 imagery during a stop at Cairo Int'l Airport, 🇪🇬Egypt.
Currently en route to an unknown destination, last seen heading SW over Africa. Interesting flight - people expect 🇷🇺Wagner presence in 🇲🇱Mali?
Say hello to our nominees! Our Awards season this year has been so exciting with a wide range of stories from around the world. Our panels of 62 judges have made their selections across 15 categories. Please join us in celebrating them.