Two Arab investigative reports have won the 2026 Sigma Awards, one of the world’s leading prizes dedicated to data journalism, after their reporters combined data analysis with fieldwork to expose sensitive humanitarian stories. Two further investigations dealing with Gaza from different angles also made the award’s shortlist.

This year’s edition, hosted by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), drew 543 entries from 84 countries. After review by a 17-member jury, 31 projects were shortlisted before ten investigations from ten countries were named winners.

In “Syria’s Stolen Children,” reporters revealed how the former Syrian regime used children as a tool of pressure against its opponents, forcibly separating them from their families and hiding them in care institutions. The investigation also documented the involvement of internationally funded humanitarian organizations in this practice.

The investigation was produced by an international team of journalists, including Bashar Deeb, Mais Katt, Charlotte Alfred, Monica Camacho, and Haya Al-Bdareen, as part of an investigative collaboration led by Lighthouse Reports in partnership with Women Who Won the War, BBC Eye, The Observer, Der Spiegel, Siraj, and Trouw.

The team relied on the analysis of official documents and records, cross-referencing databases, along with field testimonies and interviews to retrace the children’s fates and weave scattered evidence into a documented narrative.

Commenting on the investigation, the award jury said it transformed scattered documents and evidence into a coherent story, exposing a systematic practice that had remained hidden and making it visible.

Journalists Salma Abdel Aziz and Ehab Zeidan produced the investigation “The Human Trap: Sudanese Refugees Fall Into a Trap Set by Organized Gangs on the Egyptian Border,” in partnership between ARIJ (Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism) and the Al-Muhajer platform. The investigation exposed the abuses faced by Sudanese refugees attempting to enter Egypt through irregular routes, including rape, harassment, looting, and detention for ransom.

The investigation drew on a methodology combining quantitative data with fieldwork, based on a survey of 324 Sudanese refugees in Egypt alongside documented interviews with victims of these abuses.

The jury praised the investigation, considering it a model of investigative courage and ethical data journalism for the team’s success in employing data while protecting the confidentiality of sources in a high-risk environment.

Among the 31 works that reached the shortlist without winning the final award, two investigations dealing with Gaza from different angles stood out. Journalist Quynh Tran produced the investigation “Is Gaza Still a Place Where People Can Live?”, published by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), which made the shortlist. The investigation offers a data-based analysis of the scale of destruction in the Gaza Strip, drawing on satellite imagery, geographic information system (GIS) data, spatial analysis, and figures issued by international bodies, alongside estimates of the volume of rubble and damage to buildings and infrastructure.

The second investigation, titled “Where Does Your Retirement Savings Go? Companies Linked to the War on Gaza,” was published by the Colombian platform Cuestión Pública. It examined, from a financial angle, the investment of Colombian pension funds in companies linked to the war.

More broadly, the shortlisted entries covered a wide range of topics, including wars and geopolitical conflicts, human rights and migration, corruption and organized crime, and environmental issues such as deforestation and lead poisoning.

The Sigma Awards honor works published during the previous year, with entries evaluated by an independent international jury based on the quality of data use, public impact, methodological innovation, and the strength of the journalistic narrative.