Annie Thomas

Annie-thomas

Annie Thomas has worked for AFP since 1984 and earned a reputation as one of the agency's most experienced reporters on Africa.

During her five-years as deputy bureau chief in Nairobi from 1993 to 1998, she covered all the major regional conflicts. She arrived in Somalia after the deployment of US troops in Operation Restore Hope and she reported on difficulties, ultimate failure and withdrawal of the mission. She covered the civil war in Burundi in 1993 and the following year was a witness to the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. She spent much of her later years in Nairobi reporting on the consequences of the slaughter: the return to power of the Tutsi in Rwanda, the refugee crisis in what was then Zaire and later the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the ensuing war in that country.

On her return to Paris, Annie Thomas spent two years working as a sub-editor before being transferred as bureau chief to Dakar, a position she held for four years.

Since leaving Senegal, she served as deputy chief editor for Africa before being made chief editor for the Europe-Africa region.

A graduate of the school of journalism in Lille, Annie also worked in several of AFP's French provincial bureaus as well as in its London office.