Independent Journalist & Filmmaker

About

Sira is an independent journalist based in Dakar, Senegal, covering West Africa for anglophone and German media. She has over five years’ experience working for international news organisations across two dozen countries, including in hostile environments. Sira shoots and edits video, produces documentaries and reports for radio.

Prior to moving to West Africa, Sira worked as a staff foreign news producer and video journalist for BBC bureaux around the world, including in Brussels, Nairobi and Kyiv where she produced breaking news and investigations for the BBC’s flagship TV, radio and digital programmes. She’s worked at the frontlines of the war in Ukraine, covered the famine in Madagascar and has led investigations that were quoted by the UN Security Council, brought to the British High Court and been shortlisted for prestigious awards.

Her work focuses on documenting climate change, migration, humanitarian crises, human interest and conflict across West Africa and beyond.

Sira is HEFAT-trained and fluent in English, German, French and Dutch. She holds a master’s degree in International Security and Journalism from Sciences Po Paris and is currently a fellow of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.

Generation Kush

A drug crisis is crippling Sierra Leon’s youth. Social workers estimate about half of the country’s young people are addicted to drugs, including a new synthetic substance called Kush which has killed hundreds of people. But help rarely exists. This documentary follows the work of Sahid Bangura, a volunteer social worker, as he and his team fight for better health in their communities.

Produced, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

Recent Work

With commercial trawlers taking their livelihoods, hundreds of West Africans try to cross the Atlantic to reach Europe every year. It's a dangerous journey. DW's Sira Thierij reports from Senegal, as some prepare for their next attempt to come to Spain.

Reported, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

This year, more than 130,000 people have made their way back to South Sudan after decades of conflict displaced millions. But now they are confronted with the lurking threat of unexploded land mines and bombs that could go off at any time.

Reported, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

Each of the almost four million refugees who have fled Ukraine has their own story, the threads of their past lives, their escape routes and their current places of shelter all interwoven. 

This family found shelter in a Carpathian monastery in north-east Romania – living amongst monks, until one day they can return home to Kharkiv in Ukraine.

Produced, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

INVESTIGATION, BBC News
The abuser working for MI5

This is the story of a dangerous MI5 spy, which the British government tried to keep secret. After investigating for over a year, my colleague and I were taken to the High Court in an unprecedented legal battle to try and stop us from publishing the piece which led all major BBC programmes on TV and radio. Our work has been shortlisted for the Broadcast Investigation of the Year by the Society of Editors.

By Sira Thierij and Daniel De Simone

Russian forces are accused of stealing grain from Ukrainian farmers in occupied areas and the UN is warning of famine in Africa because of the disruption to supplies.

We travelled to the frontline to gather extensive evidence of Russian grain theft, including video footage, GPS data of trucks driving to Russia, secret documents and satellite images.

Produced and investigated by Sira Thierij

DOCUMENTARY/TEXT, BBC News
Madagascar’s food crisis

A million people in southern Madagascar are facing famine following the worst drought in 30 years. As the country was sealed off during COVID we managed to report on the crisis as some of the first international journalists producing a short documentary as well as TV and radio coverage.

Produced and co-filmed by Sira Thierij

More than 400 undocumented migrants are on hunger strike in the Belgian capital Brussels. Many of them have lived in the country for years and want to become legal residents, which would allow them to work officially.

Click here for the radio version

Produced, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

Ukraine Air Rescue is a group of self-funded pilots from Germany who volunteer to fly medical supplies to the Ukrainian-Polish border, and help evacuate vulnerable refugees on their return journey.

Click here for the radio version

Produced, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

RADIO DOCUMENTARY, DLF
The house girls sold on Facebook

Instead of going to school, many girls in Madagascar are sold to work as maids under terrible conditions. They are traded by agencies and on Facebook, often by their own family members.

By Sira Thierij

VIDEO, Deutsche Welle (DW)
Meet Ethiopian jazz legend Mergia

Hailu Mergia, an Ethiopian jazz legend turned taxi driver, had all but stopped taking to the stage after moving to the US. This year he returned with his first album in decades - all thanks to a phone call that came out of the blue.

Produced, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

TV, Deutsche Welle (DW)
Africa Cup: Madagascar’s fairytale

For the first time in history, Madagascar qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations — and has reached the quarter-finals. An unexpected success that is inspiring people across the country to play.

Produced, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij

RADIO DOCUMENTARY, DLF
A city swallowed by the sea

The city of Morondava is one of Madagascar’s tourist hotspots. But the sea is coming closer, swallowing roads, a hospital and the lighthouse. The reason seems obvious, but climate change isn’t to blame here.

By Sira Thierij