About Jane @JaneFerguson5
Jane is a Beirut-based special correspondent for the NewsHour, reporting from across the Middle East, Africa and beyond. Reporting highlights include front-line dispatches from the war against ISIS in Iraq, an up-close look at Houthi-controlled Yemen, and reports on the war and famine in South Sudan. Areas of particular interest are the ongoing cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, Islamist groups around the world, and US foreign policy.
Her reporting on the brutal civil war in Yemen was honored with an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, a News and Documentary Emmy Award and a Peabody Award nomination. In February 2019, Ferguson was named the George Polk Award recipient for Foreign Television reporting.
Before coming to the NewsHour Jane reported extensively for Al Jazeera English and CNN International. Ferguson is a guest professor at Princeton University, where she teaches a course on war reporting. She has lived in the Middle East for 12 years and is fluent in Arabic.
Jane’s Recent Stories
World Jun 14
Afghan allies ‘begging’ for their lives, face Taliban attacks amid US withdrawalDuring the 20-year American war in Afghanistan, thousands of locals worked for, and with, the United States. As the U.S. departs, many of them are left in profound danger. Earlier this year, Special Correspondent Jane Ferguson profiled a decorated Afghan…
World May 10
Can Yemen exist as a unified state post-war? Here’s what different forces wantThe war in Yemen shows little sign of ending despite the horrific humanitarian toll of the past seven years. Within the war between the Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, and the internationally-recognized government of Yemen, there are other battles that…
World May 04
Stalked by death: How rising food insecurity is killing war-torn Yemen’s childrenNearly seven years of war in Yemen have produced the world's most dire humanitarian catastrophe. Millions are starving and have little in the way of medical care. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson has spent years traveling in and out of the…
World May 03
On the ground with Yemeni soldiers battling Iran-allied rebelsThree months ago, President Biden ended American military involvement in the war in Yemen and reversed President Trump's decision to designate the Houthis a terrorist organization. But soon after, as special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports, the Houthis launched an offensive…
World Mar 15
In Yemen’s brutal ongoing war, ‘the weakest no longer survive’What began as a civil war in 2015 between Yemen’s government and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels has evolved into a brutal proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with U.S. involvement. Jane Ferguson updates us from Yemen on the war's terrible…
World Feb 20
As peace talks with the Taliban stall, deadline to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan loomsLast February, former President Trump made a deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1st, 2021. After two decades of partnership with the U.S. and its NATO allies, foreign forces are preparing to go home,…
World Feb 11
Abandoned by America and hunted by the Taliban, an Afghan fighter pilot faces new threatsThousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military are trying to get visas promised to them when they took the jobs. Naiem Asadi was one of Afghanistan’s most celebrated military helicopter pilots who was trained by Americans to fight.
World Feb 10
Afghan warlords and militias fill the security vacuum left by a weak central governmentAfghan security forces are strained to the limit and unable to stop rampant violence fracturing the country, as fighting has intensified between government forces and the Taliban. With the U.S. preparing to withdraw its troops, warlords and militias have been…
World Feb 09
Targeted assassinations against civil society create a climate of fear in AfghanistanAfghanistan has suffered immeasurable loss for years on battlefields and in bombings, but a recent campaign of assassinations has shocked the country. Kabul’s middle class neighborhoods are stalked and targeted by killers, picking off a generation of professionals. Special correspondent…
World Feb 08
In Afghanistan, Biden inherits America’s longest war and Trump’s peace dealLast year, the Trump administration signed a deal with the Taliban that would have U.S. and NATO troops out of Afghanistan by May 1. But with the U.S. presence in the country about to enter its third decade, peace talks…