Rageh Omaar goes on first foreign assignment for ITV News since on-air illness

Rageh Omaar has gone on his first foreign assignment for ITV News since he appeared to be taken ill on-air a year ago.

The ITV News international affairs analyst, 57, is understood to have been making a gradual return to work over the past few weeks, appearing on online platforms such as ITVX.

Omaar featured in a pre-recorded package on West Africa on ITV’s News At Ten on Friday.

In April last year, he appeared to struggle to read the news bulletins on-air and later was taken to hospital.

It is understood Friday marks his first foreign dispatch since his return earlier this year, following him making ITVX news packages that have been featured on bulletins.

Last year, Omaar said he was “determined to finish presenting the programme” and thanked his colleagues for their support.

In April 2024, ITV News said he had “medical treatment at hospital” and was recovering.

A video released on YouTube on Friday to the ITV News account showed Omaar interviewing Ivorian businessman Tidjane Thiam, the leader of PDCI-RDA, the main opposition party in the Ivory Coast.

Mr Thiam claimed to Omaar that the Government was trying to block his presidency in the African country.

Omaar is responsible for covering major news stories across the world while also presenting ITV’s current affairs programme On Assignment.

During his career, he was also a senior foreign correspondent for the BBC, rising to prominence during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and winning a best TV news journalist prize at the Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy that year.

Recently, Channel 4 News announced that ITV News deputy political editor Anushka Asthana would become the broadcaster’s US editor.