Fake Fertilizer, Dirty Money, and a Kidnapping Epidemic: 2024’s Best Investigative Stories from Sub-Saharan Africa

GIJN has systematically kept track of investigative stories produced across Africa and curated, each month , the stories that we believe represent some of the best watchdog journalism on the continent.

This year , 50 stories from across English -speaking sub-Saharan Africa made it into our Africa newsletter.

Only eight of those stories will be part of our Africa editor’s picks.

Some of the stories have already been recognized at national, regional, or continental levels.

A team of 38 journalists spread across 11 countries dug into a leak of more than 890,000 internal records from the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit .

The investigation also revealed the inner workings of an African anti-money laundering unit as it pursued investigations into a wide range of suspicious activity.

Congo 's Misdiagnosis Epidemic broke down a complex public health issue with compelling storytelling.

AIIJ interviewed informers, counter-intelligence officers, “hitmen,” and mercenaries in various agencies and units who have carried out arrests and kidnaps.

The reporting provides insight into the perpetrators’ mindset and motivations.

The multi-part series traces the vast web of international money laundering networks originating in South Africa .