Associated Press writer, West Africa
Journalist Alexandra Zavis is currently The Associated Press' West Africa correspondent, based in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire. From there, she and her colleagues cover 22 countries in West and Central Africa. Recent coverage has included the resumption of civil war in Sierra Leone and ongoing hostilities in Congo; the coup, two mutinies and efforts to restore civilian rule in Ivory Coast; and ethnic/religious clashes in Nigeria. She has also worked for AP in South Africa, Chicago and New York. She has a BA in modern history from Oxford University and completed an MA in international journalism at City University, London.
The nature of events in Africa means Ms. Zavis often reports about such crises as war, malnutrition, disease and the collapse of government authority. She writes her dispatches for audiences and readers in many countries, not just the United States, and her work is frequently translated into languages other than English.
Ms Zavis' interest in Africa began while she was a teenager living in the Washington, DC area. Her father, a U.S. diplomat, was posted to South Africa, moving their family to Pretoria.
The Associated Press is a consortium of news organizations which provides coverage of national and world events from reporters who file their dispatches to AP's New York headquarters. From there, individual newspapers, web sites and broadcasters "subscribe" and choose articles they wish to publish. Because these dispatches were once sent through communication wires such as phone lines, the AP's service is often referred to as "The Wire." (Today, news materials such as these are distributed using a variety of computer technologies including "wireless" transmissions.)
Some samples of her coverage from Africa: