Best newspaper, news service or digital interpretation of international affairs
AWARD DATE: 2021
AWARD NAME: The Bob Considine Award 2021
AWARD RECIPIENT: Neil Munshi
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: Financial Times
AWARD HONORED WORK: “The Consequences and Drivers of Conflict in West and Central Africa”
AWARD SPONSOR: William J. Holstein and Rita Sevell
Munshi’s series combined the best of explanatory writing with meticulous on-the-ground reporting from a sorely under- covered part of the world. He explained complex layers of power and the personal impact of the conflicts in Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic. At considerable personal risk, Munshi traveled to dangerous and remote places. He located and interviewed first-hand sources — among them migrants, gold miners, kidnapping victims and others caught in the turmoil that few casual readers have been able to comprehend.
Links to the winning work:
Russian mercenaries leave trail of destruction in the Central African Republic
How the death of Gaddafi is still being felt by Libya’s neighbours
Instability in the Sahel: how a jihadi gold rush is fuelling violence in Africa
Why ‘the kidnapping industry is thriving’ in Nigeria
How France lost Mali: failure to quell jihadi threat opens door to Russia
Citation for Excellence:
Nicolas Pelham
The Economist’s 1843 Magazine
“Banker, Princess, Warlord: The Many Lives of Asma Assad”