Sira Thierij

Sira is an independent journalist based in Dakar, Senegal, covering West Africa and beyond 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.