Orla Guerin became the BBC Africa Correspondent in January 2006. She is based in Johannesburg.

 

Previously, she was Middle East Correspondent, reporting from the BBC's hub bureau in the Middle East from December 2000.

 

She has reported extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and covered Iraq.

 

Orla joined the BBC as a news correspondent in 1995 and in January 1996 was posted to the West coast of the US (based in Los Angeles) where she handled a variety of stories including the Oscars.

 

She was the BBC's Southern Europe correspondent – based in Rome – from July 1996 to June 2000. During this period she reported regularly on the Kosovo conflict.

 

In 1999 she was expelled from the regional capital Pristina by Serb forces, as the NATO airstrikes began. She reported on the plight of refugees who fled across the border into Macedonia, and on their return home, as NATO took control.

 

Orla also reported extensively on the conflict in the Basque country in Northern Spain. She broke the story of the ceasefire by the Basque separatist group ETA in October 1998, which was a world exclusive. Her documentary on ETA for BBC Two's Correspondent programme was nominated for a BAFTA award.

 

Between June and November 2000 she reported from Moscow on stories including the Kursk submarine disaster and bomb attacks in the Russian capital.

 

Prior to joining the BBC, Orla worked as a reporter, presenter and foreign correspondent for Ireland's RTE News. While with RTE she travelled widely, covering Eastern and Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

 

She qualified as a journalist in 1985 with a Certificate in Journalism from the College of Commerce in Dublin. She also holds a Masters Degree in Film Studies from University College Dublin.

 

In 2002 Orla was awarded an Honorary Degree – Doctor of the University – by the University of Essex and she won the Broadcaster of the Year Award from the London Press Club.

 

In 2003, she was awarded a News and Factual Award by Women in Film and Television UK.

 

In 2004, she was awarded an MBE (Hons) for services to broadcasting. And in 2005 the Dublin Institute of Technology, which includes her own college, awarded Orla an Honorary Doctorate.

 

In 2007 she was awarded an Honorary Degree by the Open University, and won a Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents.

 

She was born in May 1966.

 

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