Nima Elbagir Profile
Nima Elbagir is a Sudanese multi-award-winning Correspondent and Reporter working for CNN in Atlanta, Georgia as the Chief International Investigative Correspondent. She joined the network in February 2011 as a correspondent based in Johannesburg. Before she joined CNN, she served UK’s Channel 4 where she held various roles.
Nima Elbagir Wiki
Full Name: Nima Elbagir
Profession: Correspondent and Reporter
Nationality: Sudanese
Education: London School of Economics
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: July 20, 1978
Age / How Old is Nima Elbagir?: 46 years old as of 2024
Place of Birth: Khartoum
Country: Sudan
Height / How tall is Nima Elbagir?: 5 feet 10 inches
Parents: Ahmed Abdullah Elbagir (dad) and Ibtisam Affan (mom)
Husband: Mark
Children: Ali
Salary: $ 20,000 – $ 100,000
Net Worth: $1 Million – $5 Million
Nima Elbagir Education
Elbagir is a proud alumnus of the London School of Economics. She graduated from the college with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Philosophy. Elbagir was also educated in Sudan as well as in Britain. She fluently speaks English and Arabic.
Nima Elbagir Career
Elbagir serves at CNN as a Chief International Investigative Correspondent. She began as an international correspondent based in Johannesburg at the network. After that, she became CNN’s Nairobi bureau-based senior international correspondent and then her current, London-based.
Over the years with CNN, Elbagir has covered various stories across the world and has mainly focused on the investigative sector. She investigated the shooting of the Nigerian security forces on young people who were on peaceful protests against alleged police brutality in October 2020. She covered the United States-backed Saudi blockade that contributed to huge food security challenges in Yemen in the year 2021.
Elbagir witnessed the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Khartoum, Sudan, in the year 2019. She went undercover with the people who were protesting and pushing for the removal of Omar al-Bashir (then-president). In the year 2018, she was responsible for the investigation of the use of child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC. It was after Daimler (Mercedes-Benz manufacturer) made announcements of an audit of its entire supply chain. In Sudan, she also covered Noura Hussein’s death sentence case of killing her rapist husband.
Elbagir was in Lybia in late 2017, where she co-investigated the reports of African migrants being sold at slave auctions along with Raja Razek (producer) and Alex Platt (photojournalist). In the year 2014, she covered the outbreak of Ebola that ravaged West Africa. Also, in the same year, she was the 1st international journalist to provide live-on-scene coverage from Chibok, the northern Nigerian village from which more than two hundred and fifty schoolgirls were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Elbagir was responsible for leading CNN’s coverage of the spiraling violence that was engulfing the Central African Republic, embedding with the French troops as they worked to broker peace between Christian fighters and entrenched Muslims. She and her crew earned plaudits for their year-long investigation into Father Luk Delft: The case of the predator priest.
Elbagir has worked as a freelancer at CNN, where she was responsible for the network’s coverage of the Hajj, and reported on Nigeria’s 50th anniversary of independence; the escalating violence against women in the Congo; and the South Sudanese Referendum.
She started her career in journalism in the year 2002 as a stringer with Reuters reporting from Sudan. She was among the 1st to provide footage from inside Darfur; while also filing material for Radio France International, the FT, and the Economist.
Nima Elbagir Channel 4
Before she joined CNN, she served UK’s Channel 4 where she held various roles. There she began as a freelancer from Kabul, then became a reporter for the “Unreported World” documentary strand. Her most recent role there was presenter and reporter for More4 News and Channel 4 News.
While at Channel 4, Elbagir conducted exclusive interviews including with the Aegis security company whistleblower on the Iraq “Trophy Videos” in the year 2005. In the following year, she interviewed Jacob Zuma in the run-up to his rape trial.
Nima Elbagir Awards and Honors
Elbagir holds the prestigious 2019 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award in the category of ‘Investigative.’ This was for her coverage of human rights abuses. In the year 2020, Elbagir was named the “Television Journalist of the Year,” by the Royal Television Society. She was named a recipient of the Courage in Journalism Award in the year 2018 by the Media Foundation of International Women. Also, in the year 2018, Elbagir won the International Center for Journalists’ Excellence in International Reporting Award for her reporting.
Elbagir’s coverage from Lybia sparked a global outcry and was honored with; the Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for Scoop of the Year; a 2018 George Polk Award in the Foreign Television Reporting category, 2 Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) Awards, a Golden Nymph Award, and the Television Trophy at the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Awards. In the year 2016, she was named the RTS Specialist Journalist of the Year for investigating the abuses such as; the mutilation of British Somali girls by FGM practitioners in Nairobi, as well as the sale of displaced Nigerian children to Boko Haram.
Nima Elbagir Personal Life, Family, Parents, and Husband
Elbagir is 46 years old as of 2024. She was born on July 20, 1978, in Khartoum, Sudan. She celebrates her birthday every 20th of July. Elbagir stands at a height of approximately 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m). Elbagir was born to Ahmed Abdullah Elbagir (father) and Ibtisam Affan (mother). Her dad was a journalist who was jailed before Elbagir was born and released from jail when his health deteriorated with asthma. Her mom was the 1st publisher in Sudan and was the publisher of Sudan’s al-Khartoum newspaper. Elbagir and her family moved to the U.K. when she was 3 years old, and then moved to Sudan when she was 8 years old, then finally went back to the U.K. after 6 years in Sudan.
Elbagir grew up alongside her 3 siblings; Safia Elbagir (sister), Yousra Elbagir (sister), and a brother whose names are unknown. Safia works as a doctor, and Yousra serves as a writer for the Guardian, Reuters Africa, and CNN Africa, in Khartoum, Sudan. Yousra also works as a content manager for Elephant Media, their family production company. Elbagir’s brother was running their printing press company before evolving the family trade into new media by establishing Elephant Media.
Talking about her marriage, Elbagir is married to Mark, who is British. They first met in Sudan. Information about their wedding and engagements is unknown at the moment. The couple takes great pride in being mom and dad to their one son, Ali.
Nima Elbagir Salary and Net Worth
Being one of the top journalists for CNN, she earns an annual salary ranging from $ 20,000 – $ 100,000. Elbagir has an estimated net worth of between $1 Million – $5 Million which she has earned through her successful career as a Correspondent and Reporter.
CNN Nima Elbagir Tigray
In the year 2022, a CNN investigation reported by Elbagir uncovered evidence of the execution, mass detention, and torture of residents in the town of Humera in Tigray, Ethiopia. Also, Elbagir investigated the Ethiopian government’s use of Ethiopian Airlines, the country’s flagship commercial airline. She revealed that the airlines transported weapons to and from Eritrea during the civil war in Tigray.
In conclusion to CNN’s reporting, Ethiopia country lost access to a lucrative United States trade program, “The African Growth and Opportunity Act.” Her coverage of human rights abuses has been extensively and directly referenced by lawmakers, through her investigations of the conflict in the Tigray region, and many other coverages. She has filed exclusive stories and investigations such as rapes, massacres, and starvation in Ethiopia.
Nima Elbagir Libya
Elbagir visited Libya alongside photojournalist Alex Platt and producer Raja Razek in the fall of 2017. While there, they investigated the reports about African migrants who were traded at slave auctions. In the company of hidden cameras, they went to a property outside Tripoli where she and Razek saw a dozen African immigrants auctioned off in less than 10 minutes with some going for as little as $400.
As a result of the report, the United Nations passed new sanctions against six men recognized as traffickers by the U.N. Libya Sanctions Committee in June 2018. Also, her report secured several awards including;
- a George Polk Foreign Television Reporting Award in 2018
- a Golden Nymph Best TV News Item Award at the Monte Carlo TV Festival
- the Royal Television Society (RTS) Scoop of the Year Award
- the Television Trophy at the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Awards
- an Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) Impact Journalism Video Award
- an Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) Impact Daily Journalism Video Award
Nima Elbagir Instagram and Twitter
Elbagir has active Instagram and Twitter accounts. Her Instagram account has over 9K followers. CLICK HERE to view her Instagram account. Her Twitter account has over 101K followers. CLICK HERE to view her Twitter account.