Abdullah Tijani, the Managing Editor of The Liberalist, has won the Local Reporter category of the 2026 Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism.
The Kurt Schork Memorial Fund, the organisers of the award, announced the winners on Tuesday, 27 October, on its website. The Fund said this year’s winners and runners-up celebrate outstanding journalism from Ukraine, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Azerbaijan.
Named in honour of the late American journalist Kurt Schork, the awards recognise courageous journalism across three categories: freelance journalists, local reporters, and news fixers from around the world.
Abdullah won the Local Reporter Award for his three-part investigative series titled “The Gold Slaves of the Sahel,” which shows the plight of local residents forced to work in the illicit gold mining industry in Zamfara state, northwestern Nigeria.
“These were powerful stories, written in a hostile environment with a distinctive voice, as Tijani dug deeper and deeper into the story of ‘blood gold’ and the links across Nigeria’s borders to the arms industry,” The Memorial Fund said.
Elnara Gasimova, who reported from an Azerbaijani prison, emerged as the runner-up in the Local Reporter category. The Fund said she displayed immense courage and shone a light on deeply disturbing aspects of life behind bars in the country, including corruption, bribery and unsafe working conditions.
The freelance journalist prize went to French journalists and photographers Pierre Terraz and Paul Boyer, while Robin Tutenges emerged as the runner-up. The News Fixer Award went to Alla Didur, with Kateryna Hatsenko as the runner-up.
Each winner receives US$10,000, while each runner-up receives US$5,000.
Abdullah Tijani becomes one of the few Nigerian journalists to have won the Kurt Schork Awards.
The Kurt Schork Memorial Fund was established in memory of American journalist Kurt Schork, who was killed in a military ambush while reporting in Sierra Leone in 2000. The Fund seeks to keep the world aware of the debt owed to brave journalists who engage in courageous reporting on conflict, corruption, injustice and human rights transgressions.
