Rageh Omaar

Rageh Omaar (born 19 July 1967) is a Somali-born British journalist and writer. He made his name as the BBC's correspondent in Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, presented the documentary series Witness on Al Jazeera English, and since 2013 has been an ITV News special correspondent and international affairs editor. ¹

Omaar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 19 July 1967 to Abdullahi and Sahra Omaar; his father was an accountant turned businessman who founded the country's first independent newspaper. ^{1 2} The family moved to the United Kingdom when he was two. ¹ His elder brother, Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar, later served as Foreign Minister of Somalia. ¹ He was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Cheltenham College, and studied modern history at New College, Oxford. ¹ The English article states that Omaar is a Muslim, and the title of his own 2006 book, Only Half of Me: Being a Muslim in Britain, describes his negotiation of his two identities; no source read names a school or order for him. ¹ In 2000 he married Georgiana Montgomery-Cuninghame; they have three children and live in Chiswick, west London. ¹

Omaar began as a trainee at The Voice newspaper, freelanced in Yemen in 1991 mainly for the BBC World Service, and returned to London as a BBC producer and broadcast journalist, later serving as the BBC's Somaliland correspondent. ¹ His live reporting of the 2003 invasion of Iraq for the BBC's bulletins made him known in the United States as the "Scud Stud", and his book about the war, Revolution Day (2005), deals with the effects of Saddam Hussein's regime, United Nations sanctions and the war on Iraqi civilians. ¹ He has since expressed regret that the coverage, his own included, concentrated on the regime and weapons inspectors and gave little attention to the Iraqi people. ¹ In September 2006 he joined Al Jazeera English, presenting the nightly documentary series Witness until 2010 and then The Rageh Omaar Report. ¹ His documentaries include An Islamic History of Europe (BBC Four, 2005), The Life of Muhammad (BBC Two, 2011) and The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors (BBC Two, 2013). ¹ He joined ITV News as a special correspondent in January 2013, was promoted to international affairs editor in 2014, and became a deputy newscaster of ITV News at Ten in 2015. ¹ He became unwell during a live News at Ten broadcast on 26 April 2024 and received medical care; he returned to the programme in a reporting capacity on 27 January 2025. ¹

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