By Cathy Manso
Before Sky News Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir began documenting Sudan’s current war, she had already spent years reporting on the country’s political upheaval, while navigating the complexity of telling stories from a place that is both her homeland and a conflict zone. Elbagir returned to Khartoum in 2015 to cover stories she felt were underreported. In 2019, while working for Channel 4 News, she reported on the Sudanese Revolution. Since April 2023, she has chronicled the war that has displaced more than 13 million people, including members of her own family.
On Dec. 15, the Overseas Press Club of America cohosted a program with the Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism at Columbia University featuring Yousra Elbagir, the recipient of the International Women’s Media Foundation’s 2025 Courage in Journalism Award. She appeared on Zoom in conversation with Alexis Okeowo, an OPC governor and writer at The New Yorker, as part of the club’s “How I Did It” series, which pairs journalists to examine the reporting behind international correspondence.
Okeowo opened the discussion by asking Elbagir to describe recent developments, “The conflict in Sudan, the genocide in Sudan, is ongoing, seems to become ever more severe, yet is still largely not in the global spotlight.”
Elbagir warned that conditions in Sudan are rapidly deteriorating, citing significant recent gains by the Rapid Support Forces, including advances in al-Fashir, Babanusa and Hij, as well as expanded control across Darfur. She said the group has opened new supply routes through Libya, Chad and South Sudan, increasing its access to weapons and resources.
She cautioned that the RSF is now pushing toward central cities and has escalated its use of drone warfare, including strikes that have killed U.N. peacekeepers. Elbagir added that the conflict has evolved beyond its early concentration in Khartoum into a prolonged, nationwide war that now stretches into its third year.
What began as fighting centered on the capital, she noted, has become a broader territorial struggle that risks fracturing Sudan into separate political and military zones.
Throughout the conversation, Okeowo guided the discussion toward the mechanics of access, framing, and responsibility, asking how Elbagir has managed to report in a conflict where entry into the country is often restricted.
Elbagir shared a moment and described the unpredictable ways personal identity and reporting intersect. While covering evacuations via Saudi Arabia, she was reporting live from a naval vessel when she unexpectedly recognized her uncle in the crowd.
“I feel eyes on me, and I turn, and I see my uncle,” Elbagir recalled. “And I run over and hug him live on air, just so ecstatic to see him. I didn’t know that he’d managed to get out.”
Later, when Elbagir faced resistance about returning to Sudan with her team, a border official recognized her from the broadcast.
“He asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘My family are in there. I need to get in.’ And he explained, ‘I saw the video with your uncle. Go ahead. Do what you want to do.’”
Elbagir shared the relationship to Sudan has been both grounding and emotionally taxing, especially as she reports on a crisis that has directly affected her family.
Much of her recent work has focused on the resilience of Sudanese civilians, particularly organizers and emergency response networks that emerged from the revolution. Okeowo asked what gives Elbagir hope as she continues reporting. Yougra pointed to mutual aid networks feeding millions and to community groups sustaining everyday life under siege.
“I’ve increased my confidence in community effort and grassroots volunteering,” she said. “The strength, the generosity, the compassion, the care, everything I’ve loved about Sudan, is saving Sudan right now.”
At the same time, she expressed frustration at how much of the burden has fallen on ordinary people, “They’re carrying the sky by themselves.”
The conversation also turned to career development, mentorship, and the evolution of judgment. Okeowo asked Elbagir how freelancing shaped her instincts and how her approach has changed over time.
Yousra introduced the phrase “arrogance of youth” emphasizing the importance of mentors who are experienced, compassionate, and willing to challenge missing knowledge. “You don’t actually know you’re blind.”
She credited her foreign editor, Lillian Landor, with reinforcing professional discipline, including a reminder to maintain a boundary between reporting and activism.
As the discussion closed, Okeowo asked what to be aware of that might indicate either escalation or resolution in Sudan. Elbagir returned to the idea that while outcomes remain uncertain, the act of documentation still remains important.
“You can’t expect that it’s going to have any outcome beyond the fact that it is now on the record,” she said. “But that still matters.”
Click the window below to watch a playlist of clips from the program.