Azad Essa

Azad Essa is a senior reporter for Middle East Eye based between Johannesburg and New York City.

Azad previously worked for Al Jazeera English between 2010-2018 in which he was part of a team that won numerous awards for our breaking news and in depth coverage of the Arab Spring. Azad has reported from across the African continent, as well as South Asia, covering politics, development and poverty.

His four-part investigation into the shocking behavior of peacekeepers in war zones, titled: Why do some peacekeepers rape? won the 2017 UN Correspondents Association International Prize (Silver) for coverage on UN activities.

Azad is also the author of Zuma’s Bastard (Two Dogs Books) which was republished as The Moslems are Coming (Harper Collins India); the e-single No country for the poor (Harper Collins India) and Out of the Shadows: Exposing the killings and attacks of persons with albinism in Malawi (with Sorin Furcoi; Amnesty International, 2019).

Azad has also written for The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, among others.