Anthony Loyd

The Times’ special correspondent Anthony Loyd goes where others won’t, delivering exceptional, visceral reporting as a result. In powerfully written and forensic pieces, he reveals the human cost of wars, as well as clearly explaining the origins of conflicts that readers may not be familiar with.

He travelled 500 miles across the desert to report from the heart of Sudan’s war in North Khartoum and Omdurman, witnessing the battle for the country’s capital at firsthand. His detailed and searing report on Sudan’s “forgotten war” takes readers into the brutal realities of day-to-day survival for the Sudanese people trapped there, already weakened by hunger and disease.

This year Loyd also reported from Kherson in Ukraine, where Russian drones were targeting civilians for sport in a killing spree known by victims and perpetrators as “drone safari”. His powerful investigative report came months before the United Nations declared the drone killings a crime against humanity.

Also on the ground in Ukraine, Loyd travelled across the country to write a deeply moving report on the developments of facial reconstruction surgery and prosthetics for wounded soldiers. The presentation of the piece, The Faces of War, is an example of online storytelling at its best.

Judges’ comments: “Brilliant journalism from some of the harshest environments on the planet… Anthony never delivers anything other than pure quality.”