In January 28, 2026, The New York Times officially announced the appointment of Elian Peltier as its new bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan. This move marks a major shift in the paper’s regional coverage, as Peltier becomes the first Times correspondent to be based in Pakistan since the expulsion of Declan Walsh in 2013. Peltier, who has spent the last several months in the region covering Pakistan’s record floods and the mass expulsion of Afghan refugees, will now lead the bureau from a permanent base in Islamabad.
I’m honored to be The New York Times’s next bureau chief for Pakistan & Afghanistan. Working in these countries over the past few months has been an immense privilege and I can’t wait to tell more of their stories alongside my talented colleagues here.https://t.co/yWvZMmDjHE
— Elian Peltier (@ElianPeltier) January 27, 2026
Peltier arrives in the role following a high-profile stint as the West Africa correspondent based in Dakar. During his time in Africa, he gained recognition for his “relentless” reporting on the Wagner Group’s operations, the conflict in the DRC, and human-centered stories, such as a program in Togo that trains hairdressers to provide mental health counseling. A native of France, his career began in the Paris bureau, where he led the paper’s coverage of the Notre-Dame fire, followed by a post in London during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The return of a resident chief to Islamabad is seen by media analysts as a response to the “deepening complexities” of the Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship, which Peltier has already begun documenting. An avid runner, Peltier has already joined a local running club in the capital, noting that Islamabad’s lush trails offer the perfect training ground for his next assignment. His appointment signals a renewed commitment by the Times to provide consistent, on-the-ground reporting from one of the world’s most volatile geopolitical crossroads.
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