Annabell Van Den Berghe

Annabell is an international journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker with extensive experience reporting from the Middle East and Europe. She combines frontline breaking news with long-form investigative storytelling, working across print, broadcast, and film.

She is the author of 📖 'De man die niemand kon begraven' (2021) and the creator of several acclaimed documentaries, including 🎬 'Iraq’s Invisible Beauty' (long-format documentary) and a documentary series on Yugoslavia and Bosnia.

For nearly a decade, Annabell served as Middle East Correspondent for the Belgian national broadcaster VRT, producing crossmedia stories for television, radio, and digital. She also reported for newspapers including De Tijd (Belgium), Trouw (Netherlands), and De Persdienst (Netherlands).

Since 2016, she has contributed to The Washington Post, while producing for BBC, ITV, and creating documentaries for CNN, We Are Pi, and VRT. Based in Cairo from 2008–2016, she covered conflicts and crises across Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Jordan, and later Belgium and France in the aftermath of the IS attacks and the ongoing migration and climate crises.

Her freelance writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vice, Al Jazeera English, Middle East Eye, Syria Deeply, IPS, and leading Belgian and Dutch outlets such as De Tijd, De Morgen, NRC Next, De Groene Amsterdammer, MO*, Knack, Financieele Dagblad, Nederlands Dagblad, De Correspondent. She occasionally publishes in Arabic.

Awards & Fellowships
Grantee, Robert Bosch Stiftung (2016)
Grantee, Fonds Pascal Decroos for Investigative Journalism (2013, 2014, 2016)
Nominee, Belfius Press Prize (2014, Radio reporting from Syria)

Beyond journalism, Annabell is a sworn translator (Arabic & Egyptian colloquial) and has taught Arabic at KU Leuven University. She has also consulted for the World Bank on governance and financial management in the MENA region, and organized a Media Training program for Iraqi journalists (Leuven, 2012).