Bio
Rageh Omaar is a British television news presenter and writer of Somali origin who used to be a BBC world affairs correspondent, where he made his name reporting from Iraq.
He moved to a new post at Al Jazeera English in September 2006, where he currently presents the nightly weekday documentary series Witness.
Early Life
Born in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Rageh is a son of a wealthy businessman from the republic of Somaliland. He is the youngest of four children.
He was educated at Cheltenham Boys College, he went on to Oxford University where he gained a BA Honours in Modern History in 1990.
Career
Rageh began his journalistic career in 1990 as a trainee at The Voice newspaper in Brixton and then moved to City Limits magazine.
In 1991 he moved to Ethiopia where he freelanced as a foreign correspondent - much of his work being broadcast by BBC World Service.
In 1992 he returned to London as a producer for Focus on Africa for the World Service at Bush House.
Between 1994 and 1996 he worked as a broadcast journalist for the World Service and then became a producer and reporter for Newshour.
In September 1996 he undertook a three-month sabbatical at the University of Jordan, where he studied Arabic.
He was appointed Amman correspondent in March 1997.
During his coverage of the Iraq invasion, almost 90% of the British population watched him on either the weekday BBC news bulletins, or on News 24.
Many of his broadcasts were syndicated across the U.S., where the Washington Post labelled him the Scud Stud.
He has written a book about his time as the BBC's Iraq correspondent called Revolution Day. The book deals with the effects of the Saddam Hussein regime, UN sanctions and the Iraq War on Iraqi civilians.