Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
AP Journalists Win Pulitzer for Coverage of Yemen Civil War
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
April 16, 2019

Share

NEW YORK — A team of three Associated Press journalists won a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting Monday for their work documenting torture, graft and starvation in Yemen’s brutal civil war.

Their reports documented civilian casualties of a U.S. drone campaign, drew attention to the presence of child soldiers on the front lines and showed evidence of torture by both Houthi rebels and U.S.-backed forces.
Reporter Maggie Michael, photographer Nariman El-Mofty and video journalist Maad al-Zikry spent a year uncovering atrocities and suffering in Yemen, shining a light on a conflict largely ignored by the American public.
In a series of stories, they told of how famished people in parts of Yemen were reduced to eating leaves to stay alive while corrupt officials diverted international food aid.
Their reports documented civilian casualties of a U.S. drone campaign, drew attention to the presence of child soldiers on the front lines and showed evidence of torture by both Houthi rebels and U.S.-backed forces. For one report, Michael managed to interview seven torture victims while they were still being held prisoner.
Their images and stories, gathered at times under dangerous conditions, made a difference.
At least 80 prisoners were released from secret detention sites controlled by the United Arab Emirates after one of their reports. A Houthi leader ordered an investigation of rebel-run prisons, saying that torture was “unforgivable.”
The United Nations rushed food and medicine to areas where the AP revealed that people were starving and threatened to cut off aid to Houthi-controlled areas unless corrupt food diversions stopped.
Photo of Associated Press journalists
This photo combination shows Associated Press journalists, from left, videographer Maad al-Zikry, reporter Maggie Michael and photographer Nariman El-Mofty. The team won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for their work documenting torture, graft and starvation in Yemen’s brutal civil war. (AP Photo)

Reuters Was Also Awarded a Pulitzer in International Reporting

“AP’s groundbreaking work in Yemen has drawn the world’s attention to one of the worst tragedies of our time,” said AP’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee. “Yemen is one of the most dangerous places in the world to report. And yet, again and again, this team braved those dangers to tell stories that the world heard from no other source, and with extraordinary detail.”

“AP’s groundbreaking work in Yemen has drawn the world’s attention to one of the worst tragedies of our time. Yemen is one of the most dangerous places in the world to report. And yet, again and again, this team braved those dangers to tell stories that the world heard from no other source, and with extraordinary detail.” — AP’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee
To do their work, the three journalists had to travel through dangerous areas, avoid groups angered by their reporting and work to protect the people who spoke with them from danger. The AP pulled Al-Zikry from Yemen in late 2018 because it was concerned about his safety, a step it had also taken in 2017.
The AP’s investigative reporting on the war in Yemen in 2018 was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
The staff of Reuters was also awarded a Pulitzer in international reporting for an investigation of a massacre of Rohingya men and boys in a village in Myanmar. The award included a special acknowledgement for journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested in December 2017 by the Myanmar government during the course of their reporting and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The prizes were announced in New York at Columbia University.
Michael, an Egyptian based in Cairo, joined the AP in 2002. She has covered political and religious conflict in the Middle East and, as part of AP’s investigations team, has written about civilian casualties in Iraq.
Nariman Ayman 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 Mideast.

This Is the AP’s 53rd Pulitzer Overall

Al-Zikry is a Yemeni 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.
They worked closely with editor Lee Keath, based in Cairo, who has covered the Middle East for the AP since 2005.

“This is a story that everybody was not really paying good attention, and we’re very happy to be able to draw some attention to it.” — Reporter Maggie Michael
“This is a story that everybody was not really paying good attention, and we’re very happy to be able to draw some attention to it,” Michael said.
The Pulitzer covers the AP’s work on Yemen in 2018, but the team has continued its reporting. Earlier this month, Michael revealed that Yemen’s cholera epidemic has been worsened by corruption.
This is the AP’s 53rd Pulitzer overall. The last came in 2016, when the news organization won a Pulitzer for public service for an investigation of enslaved fishermen in Southeast Asia.
AP journalists were finalists for five Pulitzers in all this year, including the work on Yemen, the most since the Pulitzer board began revealing the names of finalists as well as winners in 1980.
AP photographers Noah Berger, John Locher and Ringo H.W. Chiu were finalists in the breaking news category for coverage of wildfires in California. AP photographers were finalists in the same category for coverage of clashes between Palestinians and Israelis in Gaza. The AP’s coverage of the Trump administration’s migrant family separation policies was a finalist in the national reporting category.
The AP was also among several news organizations that collaborated with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting in an investigation of discrimination in the banking system. That report was a finalist in the explanatory reporting category.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Fresno County’s New Breeding Ordinance Could Shut Down 50 Operations

DON'T MISS

NATO Leaders Set to Back Trump Defense Spending Goal at Hague Summit

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Wildfire Quickly Contained. How Did They Do It?

DON'T MISS

Lender’s Intervention Halts City of Fresno’s Eviction Attempt at Granite Park

DON'T MISS

Clovis Unified Faces Lawsuit Alleging Years of Neglect and Sexual Abuse at Fancher Creek

DON'T MISS

Suspect in Bombing at California Fertility Clinic Dies in Federal Custody

DON'T MISS

US Airstrikes Failed to Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Stephen Miller Expands Power in Second Trump Term, Defies Legal Limits

DON'T MISS

FTA Unloads on Fresno Unified After Skipping External Search for Chief Academic Officer

DON'T MISS

Fresno Man Dies After Alleyway Attack. Police Investigating

UP NEXT

US Airstrikes Failed to Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Sources Say

UP NEXT

Things Netanyahu Might Say if Injected With Truth Serum

UP NEXT

US to Give $30 Million to Gaza Aid Operation Despite Violence Concerns

UP NEXT

Early US Intel Assessment Suggests Strikes on Iran Did Not Destroy Nuclear Sites, CNN Reports

UP NEXT

Yemen’s Houthis Likely to Be Persistent Problem for US, Senior Military Official Says

UP NEXT

Trump Casts Doubt on Mutual Defense as He Flies to Europe for NATO Summit

UP NEXT

Clovis Man Sentenced to 8 Years in Federal Prison in Deadly Fentanyl Case

UP NEXT

Victims Identified as Death Toll Climbs to 8 in Lake Tahoe Boating Tragedy

UP NEXT

About 400 Passengers Have Left Israel on US-Assisted Flights, Official Says

UP NEXT

Explosions Ring out in Tehran Despite Trump’s Order to Israel to Stop Strikes

NATO Leaders Set to Back Trump Defense Spending Goal at Hague Summit

8 hours ago

Fresno County Wildfire Quickly Contained. How Did They Do It?

8 hours ago

Lender’s Intervention Halts City of Fresno’s Eviction Attempt at Granite Park

8 hours ago

Clovis Unified Faces Lawsuit Alleging Years of Neglect and Sexual Abuse at Fancher Creek

8 hours ago

Suspect in Bombing at California Fertility Clinic Dies in Federal Custody

9 hours ago

US Airstrikes Failed to Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Sources Say

9 hours ago

Stephen Miller Expands Power in Second Trump Term, Defies Legal Limits

9 hours ago

FTA Unloads on Fresno Unified After Skipping External Search for Chief Academic Officer

10 hours ago

Fresno Man Dies After Alleyway Attack. Police Investigating

10 hours ago

Poll: Most Californians Prefer Lower Taxes and Fewer Services, Skeptical of Gov’t Spending

10 hours ago

Cuomo Concedes to Mamdani in New York City Democratic Mayoral Contest

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday conceded to state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary election for New York C...

4 hours ago

Former New York governor and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks during the primary election night rally in New York City, U.S., June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
4 hours ago

Cuomo Concedes to Mamdani in New York City Democratic Mayoral Contest

People hold “I Voted” stickers on Democratic primary day in New York, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. After months of campaigning, caustic debates and a deluge of attack ads, the consequential Democratic primary for mayor of New York City comes to a head on Tuesday as voters stream to the ballot box in blistering heat. (Hilary Swift/The New York Times)
5 hours ago

Mamdani Holds Lead Over Cuomo in Democratic Primary for NYC Mayor

7 hours ago

Fresno County’s New Breeding Ordinance Could Shut Down 50 Operations

President Donald Trump arrives at a dinner for NATO heads of state and governments hosted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Dutch Queen Maxima, on the sidelines of a NATO Summit, at Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, Netherlands June 24, 2025. (Reuters/Toby Melville)
8 hours ago

NATO Leaders Set to Back Trump Defense Spending Goal at Hague Summit

A 180-acre wildfire in Cantua Creek was fully contained Tuesday afternoon, with CalFire crediting nearby roads for helping crews quickly stop the Monterey Fire from spreading. (CalFire)
8 hours ago

Fresno County Wildfire Quickly Contained. How Did They Do It?

8 hours ago

Lender’s Intervention Halts City of Fresno’s Eviction Attempt at Granite Park

8 hours ago

Clovis Unified Faces Lawsuit Alleging Years of Neglect and Sexual Abuse at Fancher Creek

California Fertility Clinic Bombing Investigation
9 hours ago

Suspect in Bombing at California Fertility Clinic Dies in Federal Custody

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend