Joe Penney
Joe Penney is a writer, filmmaker and photographer who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Lagos. He directed a documentary, "Sun of the Soil: The Story of Mansa Musa," about the reign of Mali's 14th-century king. Penney's articles and essays have been published by The Intercept, The New York Times, Quartz, Reuters and Paris journals. He was West African photo bureau chief for Reuters, and his pictures have appeared in Geo, Jeune Afrique, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Time, among others. He has photographed presidential elections in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone as well as the 2012 coup in Mali and the French military intervention in 2013, Mauritanian refugee camps, mining sites in Niger, migrants in the Sahel, counterterrorism campaigns in Cameroon, the 2013-2014 conflict in Central African Republic and the people's coup in Burkina Faso in 2014. Penney co-founded Sahelien.com, a news company covering the Sahel region, in 2013. In Africa, he has lived in Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. He graduated from McGill University in Montreal and speaks English, French and Spanish.
- Joe Penney
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The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a 17-point peace agreement in the White House on Aug. 8, 2025, negotiated by President Trump after many years of deliberations and interrupted by Azerbaijan’s military takeover of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in …
- Categories: UNGA80
- Joe Penney
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Qatari Emir Slams Israel The emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, fought against recent verbal and physical attacks by Israel and sought to rebuild the image of his Mideast country as crucial to regional and international peace efforts …
- Categories: UNGA80
- Joe Penney
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YEREVAN, Armenia — The International Criminal Court’s first prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, is best known for prosecuting national criminals like the ex-Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir. A 2022 movie about Moreno Ocampo’s work in Argentina prosecuting former junta leaders was nominated …
- Joe Penney
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A major theme of the recent United Nations General Assembly opening session was reforming the Security Council and including a permanent seat for Africa. The Pact for the Future states the UN’s commitment to “redress the historical injustice against Africa …
- Categories: Africa, Security Council
American officials have told the embattled Sudanese President and head of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that they will pressure the United Arab Emirates to stop providing weapons to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The rebels are …
- Categories: Africa, General Assembly, UNGA79
- Joe Penney
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Ukraine: Harsh Words for China and Brazil Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded his case to world leaders to support his country’s continuing defense against Russian aggression until “a just peace” — or the total restoration of Ukrainian territory — during …
- Categories: General Assembly, UNGA79
- Joe Penney
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YEREVAN, GORIS and MEGHRI, Armenia — On Sept. 19, 2023, Narine Mirzoyan had just finished classes at the secondary school where she taught Armenian language and history. “I came home and was changing my clothes,” she said. “It was around …
- Categories: Small States
- Joe Penney
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YEREVAN, Armenia — Since Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to office in 2018 on the heels of a democratic revolution in which he played a central role, his administration has faced numerous security and political crises. The protracted conflict …
- Categories: Human Rights, Peace and Security, Refugees, Security Council
The United Nations Secretariat has received requests from both the ousted government of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held hostage in Niger’s capital Niamey by the country’s military since it staged a coup d’Ă©tat on July 26, 2023, …
- Categories: Africa, General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council, UNGA78
- Joe Penney
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In April 2021, Islamic State jihadists overran the Mozambican town of Palma, killing dozens of people and forcing a standoff between insurgents and hundreds of civilians holed up at the Amarula Hotel. The vicious insurgency that started in 2017 had …
- Categories: Africa, Human Rights, Peace and Security, Security Council
- Joe Penney
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As the United Nations Security Council plans to vote this week on the future of Minusma, its peacekeeping mission in Mali, the military officers in charge in Bamako will have their eyes on developments in Moscow, Minsk and the front …
- Categories: Africa, Security Council, Ukraine-Russia War, UN Peacekeeping
- Joe Penney
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LAGOS — A little more than 11 years after a jihadist and Tuareg separatist alliance stormed northern Mali and wrested control of the main cities of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal from the Malian state, the two sides are set to …
- Categories: Africa, Human Rights, Security Council, Ukraine-Russia War, UN Peacekeeping
- Joe Penney
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LAGOS — In January 2017, the Malian foreign minister under President Ibrahim Boubacar KeĂ¯ta organized Mali’s largest diplomatic event in years, the Africa-France summit. Thirty-five heads of state convened in the capital, Bamako, requiring close cooperation with the French presidency …
- Categories: Africa, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping
- Joe Penney
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On the next-to-last day of the globe’s largest talkfest by world leaders, Sept. 24, the United Nations may have been quiet and most of the police barricades may have been dismantled outside, but inside the Assembly Hall, two powerful, stern …
- Categories: Africa, Asia, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Secretary-General
- Joe Penney
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SOCHI, Russia — As the Turkish presidential plane carried President Recep Tayyip Erdogan across the Black Sea from Sochi, Russia, back to Ankara last week, dozens of African heads of state arrived in this resort city for the inaugural Russia-Africa …
- Categories: Africa, Geopolitics, Security Council, US Foreign Relations
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