Henry Wilkins

In 2023, I spent six weeks in Eastern Chad reporting on refugees arriving from Darfur, Sudan after conflict errupted in that country earlier that year. In one refugee camp, Sudanese children told me how Janjaweed militias in Darfur made them orphans and showed me how they made kites, which one refugee said resembled those that bomb Darfur.

In April 2023, I visited Barentsburg, Norway, a coal mining town in the high Arctic, where Ukrainian residents lived side by side with Russians. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, however, Ukrainians have left the town after finding themselves in conflict with the Russian community.

In February 2024, I visited Nepal, where hundreds of vulnerable Nepalis have been recruited by the Russian military in recent months, with promises of high wages and citizenship. One family told me about how their son joined the Russian army as a mercenary after being left destitute in Russia by a scammer.

In February 2024, I visited Nepal, where a China-funded international airport in Nepal opened more than a year earlier but still hadn't received international flights. With loan repayments for the Pokhara airport due to start soon, many were worried Nepal had fallen into a debt trap.

In September 2020 I reported from Burkina Faso on wildlife rangers driven out of the country’s nature reserves by armed groups. Poaching has increased as a result. Rangers and conservation groups told me they feared the West African lion could disappear from the region, one of its last remaining strong holds. You can read the full article here. Picture is by Philipp Henschel from the NGO Panthera.

My report for the Economist on the Moroccan Elections of October 2016. Photo is Press Association's (not mine). You can read the full article here.

© Henry Wilkins 2016

In March 2020, I profiled the prominent Burkinabe vigilante, Boureima Nadbanka, who had recently been accused of orchestrating the Yirgou Massacre, which killed as many as 200 people. You can read the full article here.

In January 2020, I worked as local producer on a documentary for Vice News and Showtime - ‘Terror in the Sahel’. With journalist Ben Anderson, I travelled to Burkina Faso’s north, set up interviews, found locations and greased the wheels of the whole production. You can see a trailer and a clip on this page.

The UN has called Africa's Sahel region 'the canary in the coalmine' for the effects of climate change: drought and desertification that contributes to conflict and migration in the region. In July 2021 I met Burkina Faso rapper turned farmer Art Melody, who channels the struggles of being on the front line of climate change into his music. You can watch the video by clicking the window on the left.

I made this report shortly after an attack in Burkina Faso in June 2021 that killed 160 civilians. The attack was in retaliation for the activity by pro-government civilian militias in the area, according to Human Rights Watch. I spoke to victims of human rights abuses by these militias and members of the militias themselves. You can watch the video by clicking the window on this page.

In May 2021 I created this story for the Washington Post. I travelled to Nanoro, where the new malaria vaccine with a 77% efficacy is being tested. I looked into the reasons why it is taking so long to come to fruition, when a COVID vaccine only took a few months. You can read the article here.

In February 2020, I collaborated with photographer Anne Mimault to bring the story of Thibault Fournier and his business partner Jean Koala to the world. The pair had spent ten years building a ‘Tudor’ castle on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. You can read the full article here. All photos by Anne Mimault.

In October 2021 I appeared on ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ trying to separate the man from the myth in the legend of assassinated Burkina president Thomas Sankara. Nice to be introduced by another legend, Kate Adie. You can listen to it here.

In March 2019 I featured on The Economist’s daily podcast ‘The Intelligence’ to talk about the article I’d recently written for them about disruption in the whisky industry. My segment starts around 18:40. You can listen to it here.

In October 2021, I appeared on the BBC’s Focus on Africa TV program, to talk about the murder trial of former Burkinabe president Thomas Sankara. You can watch the clip in the window in the left.