Philip Obaji Jr.

Nigerian journalist and activist

A courageous journalist and an unrivalled advocate for the protection of displaced and ordinary people in conflict zones, Philip Obaji has documented over 100 cases of human rights abuses and exploitation by Russian paramilitaries deployed in West and Central Africa over the past seven years. He has investigated and reported on the indiscriminate massacres, rape, torture, and oppression of vulnerable villagers by mercenaries from the Wagner Group and its successor, Afrika Corps, in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, despite facing threats in extraordinarily perilous situations—including being held hostage by CAR rebels and detained by CAR soldiers, who tortured him at the behest of Russian paramilitaries. Obaji, whose investigative work has been published by some of the world’s most prominent media outlets, including The Daily Beast and Al Jazeera, has also spent the past decade exposing the trafficking of refugees in West and Central Africa, rightly portraying it as an overlooked consequence of war.