Nigeria’s Philip Obaji has been named the only African nominee for the Stuttgart Peace Prize previously won by former CIA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The 37-year-old Daily Beast correspondent and human rights campaigner is one of the 16 individuals and organizations nominated for the 2023 edition of the prestigious award.
Other nominees for the Prize include Amaro Foro eV, a Germany-based transcultural youth association, Natalie Amiri, German-Iranian journalist, German Doctors, German global medical outreach, Kickers Fan project, German football initiative, Samuel J. Fleiner, German conceptual artist and composer, Parastou Forouhar, Iranian artist and author, Shahin Gavanji and Jahangir Gavanji, Iranian human rights activists and researchers and Initiative against the death penalty e. V, based in Taunusstein, Germany.
Also nominated for the Prize are Ali R., human rights campaigner in Europe, Die Seebrücke, Germany-based civil society movement, Start with a Friend e.V., German nonprofit social association, Stelp eV, civil aid organization based in Stuttgart, Germany, Harald Thomé, German social justice campaigner, Thomas and Ulrike Vogt, German peace activists and Wahat al-Salam /Neve Shalom, Israeli cooperative village.
The Stuttgart Peace Prize is an annual award of 5,000 Euros made by the German Non-Governmental Organization Die AnStifter to people or projects involved “in a special way for peace, justice and world solidarity”.
The prize will be awarded to a winner at a peace gala in Stuttgart, Germany, on December 10.
Obaji who is an award-winning journalist is the inaugural recipient of the Jim Hoge Reporting Fellowship awarded by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
A specialist in Russia’s involvement in West Africa, along with Mais Katt, a reporter from Syria known for her coverage of the Syrian War, and Bárbara Poerner, a Brazilian journalist who reports on climate and gender in her country, was selected for the fellowship designed to help rising news leaders in the U.S. and abroad produce high-quality news and advance their careers.
Through the fellowship with the ICFJ, Obaji, who is currently attending the Berlin Fellowship Program on digital security in Germany, will produce an investigative report about the involvement of Wagner – Russia’s mercenary group – in clashes across West Africa.
