Supported projects

BRUSSELS / RAMALLAH – This investigation maps out a little-known network linking European dog trainers, breeders and foreign donors to the civilian dog units of Israel and the settlements.

SARAJEVO – In late 1995, the Dayton Accords brought an end to more than four years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The violence ceased and people celebrated. But this peace treaty also laid the foundations for an ethnically and politically divided country.

ISTANBUL / BRUSSELS – The nature of warfare is changing rapidly today. A flood of new technologies is emerging on the battlefield, including drones, robots, lasers and artificial intelligence.

KHASAB / MUSCAT - The US and Iran continue to exchange attacks. US strikes are followed by Iranian retaliation, with targets including American bases in Gulf states such as Oman's Musandam exclave, which is separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates and situated right on the Strait of Hormuz.

ZUGDIDI - The 250-kilometre border between Abkhazia and Georgia has been dividing the two countries for decades, making life increasingly difficult for the communities living along it. Caught between Russian pressure and the manoeuvrings of the ruling Georgian Dream party, those living near the border find themselves increasingly at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

MADRID - When a military coup took place in Spain in 1936, followed by a civil war, as many as 2,400 volunteers left our country to fight on the side of the democratically elected Second Republic (1931–1939), first with the militias in the Basque Country and Catalonia, and later with the International Brigades.

KHARTOUM - Almost a year after the recapture of Khartoum by Sudanese government forces from the RSF (Rapid Support Forces), the capital lies largely in ruins — a ghost town scarred by conflict. Arnaud De Decker found widespread devastation and spoke to residents who endured the occupation and to those who have since returned to reclaim what remains.

ANTWERP - The Organisation Todt (OT) was a German paramilitary government organisation named after its founder, Fritz Todt. The group was involved in major construction projects (such as the Atlantic Wall), security assignments (such as guarding prisoner-of-war and concentration camps) and military operations and genocides (including those in Eastern Europe).

HADIBU - Travel influencers have discovered the island of Socotra. Although leisure travel to Yemen is strongly discouraged amid ongoing conflict, Socotra is portrayed online as a carefree destination — raising serious questions about the consequences for one of the world's most fragile ecosystems.

QAMISHLO - March 2014. During a report in Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria, things go wrong. IS militants storm the town hall and blow themselves up. Ten years later, we return to Qamishlo to see how the events of that day have changed the lives of those involved, and what remains of the revolutionary enthusiasm of a decade ago.

MARIUPOL - As Russian forces close in on the city, thousands of Mariupol's inhabitants are taking shelter in the cellars of the Azov steelworks. This is a reconstruction of the 82 dark days of recent Ukrainian history, during which courage, creativity and tolerance helped them to survive.

JERUSALEM / BEIRUT / DAMASCUS – The geopolitical and humanitarian situation in the Middle East has worsened since the terror attacks of 7 October 2023. International organisations have documented large-scale war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine. Meanwhile, Israel has invaded Lebanon and Syria. This advanced geopolitical strategy too often loses sight of the fate of ordinary civilians.

GULU - Since 2005, the ‘LRA’ has been expelled from Uganda. Despite an international arrest warrant, Joseph Kony is still a fugitive. President Musevini is still in power after 38 years. The majority of Uganda's population lives in poverty with no prospect of improvement. They are surviving but hungry for hope.

BELGRADE - Yugoslavia began as a dream. A noble ideal to unite the Slavic peoples of the south. What followed was a tortuous history: from kingdom to socialist republic, from tourist paradise to war zone.

KIEV / GOMA / TIGRAY - Sexual violence is unfortunately common in conflicts and wars. It is a serious violation of humanitarian law of war that is rarely punished. For victims, the consequences are profound - physically, mentally and socially.

MINDAT - The protests are continuing and the army is firing with a vengeance. Especially in the far corners of the country, where ethnic groups have been resisting the army for years, a veritable guerrilla movement is appearing. But where does the resistance stand now? And how do young people view the past years of unrelenting struggle.

NAYPYIDAW - From exile, Myanmar filmmakers continue their armed resistance against the military regime. Many have joined rebel groups, seamlessly switching between camera and gun whilst using film proceeds to fund the insurgency.

SREBRENICA – The women of Srebrenica have spent 30 years searching through mass graves, holding fragments of bone up to the light, hoping to recognise the remains of sons, husbands and fathers who never came home.

BEIROET / JERUSALEM / DAMASCUS - The ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 had huge consequences: dictators fell, wars followed, the refugee crisis came. Now the Middle East is in a new maelstrom, from Gaza and Lebanon to Syria. Do younger generations see hope alongside misery?

BOSASO - After almost a decade of silence on Somalia's northern coast, piracy seems to be making a comeback. Driven by hunger and desperation, old smuggling routes are being reopened and strategic ports are being targeted. 'The sea beckons as never before.'The comeback of Somali pirates

NOUAKCHOTT - In the Sahel, Mauritania is the only country spared from jihadist incursions and large-scale violence. Meanwhile, nearly two hundred thousand Malian refugees are staying both in the Mauritanian refugee camp of M'bera and in the villages of the Hodh Chargui border region.

DONETSK - As a young reporter, Arnaud De Decker toured Ukraine, a country torn apart by the biggest war on the European continent since World War II.

TANGIER - When fishmonger Mohsin Fikri is crushed in a rubbish truck, the Riffins have had enough. They demand that their region finally be developed after decades of backwardness: they want more jobs, better healthcare and, most importantly, recognition of their historic struggle against colonisation.

GAZA - Nadia AlHassanat was born in Gaza during the First Intifada. In her twenties, she fled her conservative family to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Today, she has been living in Belgium for eight years. The only person she stayed in touch with by phone is her older sister Fatma, who remains in Gaza with her two children.

BAKU - In September last year, violence came to a head in Nagorno Karabakh, the disputed area between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Just about all 120,000 Armenians were expelled from the region then. But the conflict has been going on for much longer.

THE HAGUE - Since the war in Ukraine, dozens of Russian ‘research vessels’ have been making suspicious movements near critical infrastructure in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This has been revealed by research conducted by VRT NWS in collaboration with media outlets in the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia.

BAHIR DAR - For the past 19 months, Ethiopia’s Amhara region has been devastated by a conflict between federal forces and the Fano militia, which seeks full control of Amhara territory. 

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is not so much a country with an army, but rather an army with a country. Like the black kite, a powerful bird of prey, the armed forces keep a close eye on the people of Pakistan.

NAYPYIDAW - When the Burmese Spring began more than a decade ago, and 50 years of dictatorship seemed to be coming to an end, trees were growing to the sky in Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi came to power and the country liberalized. After the Rohingya genocide, however, the honeymoon was over. And the new military coup in February 2021 turned back the clock decisively.

OSWIECIM - Journalist Evelien Rutten goes on a road trip to Auschwitz with her teenage daughter and two aunts in this narrative podcast and book of the same name. They visit all the important places that played a crucial role in their family history.