Nima Elbagir joined CNN in February 2011 as a reporter, based at network's Johannesburg bureau, before later moving to Nairobi. Africa has been the main focus of her reporting for CNN. She has been at forefront of almost every major news story from the continent in recent years. Most recently, in 2017, her reporting on slave auctions in Libya made headlines around the world, bringing the issue of human trafficking to the top of the political agenda. It was discussed in the UN, brought comments from world leaders, including President Macron of France and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, and sparked a debate in the UK parliament.

Earlier in her career, at immense personal risk, Elbagir reported on the Ebola outbreak that had ravaged West Africa, entering Liberia's quarantine zones and exploring the devastation the disease had wrought there. She was also the first international journalist to report from Chibok, the northern Nigerian village from which over 250 schoolgirls were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Her other work for CNN includes several exclusive reports on the story of Yehya Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman sentenced to death for committing apostasy -- interviewing Ibrahim's estranged family and terrified husband. Elbagir’s reporting brought the attention of the world to Ibrahim's plight, helping to generate the political pressure that eventually led the Sudanese government to grant her a reprieve.

Before joining CNN, Sudanese-born Elbagir reported and presented for UK broadcaster Channel 4, notably from Kabul for Channel 4 News; and for the network’s Unreported World documentary strand. She began her journalism career with Reuters in 2002, reporting from Sudan, and was one of the first to provide footage from inside Darfur.

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