Renowned Egyptian investigative journalist Maggie Michael, Egyptian photojournalist Nariman El-Mofty, and Yemeni video journalist Maad Al-Zikry were awarded Atlantic Media s 16th annual Michael Kelly Award for their reporting on Yemen for The Associated Press, nearly a month after they won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
“The on-the-ground complexities of the ongoing civil war in Yemen, supported and exacerbated by outside powers, are nearly impossible for outsiders to follow. Confronting continual threats from all sides, these journalists filed stories for The Associated Press that consistently broke new ground, brought the nature of the conflict vividly alive, and exposed the ruthless cynicism of those perpetuating the conflict,” the judges said.
Last April, Michael, El-Mofty, and Al-Zikry won a Pulitzer in international reporting for their coverage of abuses in Yemen’s civil war.
According to AP, the trio spent a year uncovering atrocities and suffering in Yemen, shining a light on “a conflict largely ignored by the American public.”
The series of reports including documented civilian casualties of a US drone campaign drew attention to the presence of child soldiers on the front lines and showed evidence of torture by both Houthi rebels and US-backed forces.
Michael, who is based in Cairo, joined the AP in 2002. She covered political and religious conflict in the Middle East and, as part of AP s investigations team, has written about civilian casualties in Iraq and Yemen.
El-Mofty is a Canadian-Egyptian photographer. She worked first as a photo editor, then since 2016 as a photographer covering Egypt, Yemen and other parts of the Middle East.
Al-Zikry is a video journalist who has spent years chronicling the war and its horrors. His photograph of an emaciated infant dying at a hospital in 2016 helped bring world attention to starvation in Yemen.
Michael and El-Mofty are the first Egyptians to win the prize.
