Mikel Konate (Madrid, 1982) is an award-winning independent visual journalist and filmmaker based in Madrid and working worldwide. His work focuses on armed conflicts, migration, and the climate crisis.
Konate began his career as a video journalist in 2005, covering breaking news and social movements for Spanish media. Since 2014, he has reported internationally for news agencies, production companies, and NGOs, driven by a commitment to uncover the human stories behind the headlines and give voice to those overlooked in global crises, from war zones to climate disasters.
Since 2022, Konate has specialized in the documentation of extreme wildfires, spending fire seasons embedded with wildland firefighter crews on the front lines. This ongoing long-term project documents the evolving nature of these fires while examining their complex causes and far-reaching social and environmental impacts across the Iberian Peninsula.
Previously, Konate co-founded the non-profit Sonda Internacional (2022–2024). During his time there, he led a long-term reporting project on extreme wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula. One of the resulting reports received an Honorable Mention at the SIP Solutions Journalism Awards.
His documentary credits include the BBC’s Captagon: Inside Syria’s Drug Trafficking Empire, winner of the DIG Awards 2024 for Best Investigative Long Documentary, and Leaving Afghanistan for PBS FRONTLINE. His reporting has also earned him the Rory Peck Trust Award for News (2018) and a nomination as a finalist in 2019 for his coverage in Northern Syria.
Beyond reporting, Konate’s work has achieved significant legal and social impact. His footage has been used as evidence in cases before the European Court of Human Rights and in a landmark ruling by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which found Spain in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ordered the State to revise its legal regime governing automatic expulsions in Ceuta and Melilla.
He has worked worldwide with Reuters, The Associated Press, BBC, CNN, ARTE, Al Jazeera, Euronews, and NGOs such as UNHCR and MSF (selected). His work has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, CBS, NBC, Channel 4, and France 24 (selected).
