Yousra Elbagir

Elbagir was born in Khartoum to a Sudanese journalist and politician, and his wife a publisher and business partner. Her mother is known to be the first female publisher in Sudan. She grew up in the United Kingdom until she was 8 years old, when her family moved to Sudan. She moved back to London at the age of 16 and there, she acquired her A levels and graduated from the University of St Andrews with honours after studying Social Anthropology.[4][5][6]

Elbagir started her journalistic experience by participating in student publications during her studies at St Andrews.[7]

Elbagir returned to Sudan in 2015 after her studies to train as a journalist in the field for a year and half.[3][6] As of 2016, she was working as a freelance reporter in Khartoum and was a producer for Elephant Media.[1] Her works have been featured on HBO, Channel 4, BBC Africa, BBC Radio 4, CNN, The Financial Times and The Guardian.[8][9][10][11][12]

Elbagir is well-known for having launched the #SudanUnderSanction online media campaign in which Sudanese women and men discussed the effects of the trade sanctions against Sudan.[13]

In 2019, Elbagir reported on the Sudanese Revolution while working for Channel 4. She criticised the beginning steps of the Sudanese institutional transition to democracy, stating, "For the [first] tangible political progress of decades to exclude women is ridiculous. ... Women were the reason that the mass pro-democracy sit-in was able to continue for nearly two months. They ran make-shift clinics, fed fasting protesters daily during Ramadan, they spent the night at check points searching female protesters."[14]

Elbagir is the younger sister of the award-winning CNN journalist and TV correspondent Nima Elbagir.[7][6]

• In 2016, Elbagir was awarded the 2016 Thomson Foundation & Foreign Press Association Young Journalist Award for her in-depth reporting on the effects of United States sanctions against Sudan.[7][13][15][2]
• In 2017, she was included in OkayAfrica's 100 Women list.[16][7]