Dom Phillips: British journalist goes missing in the Amazon

Reporter has extensively covered threat of climate change on Indigenous communities

Phillips went missing while researching a book in the Brazilian Amazon's Javari Valley (AFP via Getty Images)

A British journalist and veteran international correspondent has gone missing in a remote part of the Amazon, a local indigenous association has said.

Dom Phillips, a longstanding contributor to The Guardian, and Bruno Araujo Pereira, a Brazilian indigenous expert, were last seen at 7am local time on Sunday in the Sao Rafael community, according to the Unijava association.

Mr Pereira was an adviser to the association and had been travelling with Mr Phillips, who was working on a book about the environment.

The pair were returning by boat from the Vale do Javari indigenous land and were bound for the city of Atalaia do Norte, about an hour away.

A search party was deployed at about 2pm after they failed to arrive.

Phillips, right, and a Yanomami indigenous man in Maloca Papiu village, Roraima state, in 2019 (AP)

Dom Phillips takes notes as he talks with indigenous people at the Aldeia Maloca (AFP via Getty Images)

The area – which houses one of the largest indigenous territories in Brazil – has been marked by violent conflicts between fishers, poachers and government agents.

A spokesperson for The Guardian said: “The Guardian is very concerned and is urgently seeking information about Mr Phillips’s whereabouts and condition. We are in contact with the British embassy in Brazil and local and national authorities to try to establish the facts as soon as possible.”

Mr Phillips, who also regularly contributes to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times, was described by the newspaper as being a great lover of the Amazon region, and had reported intensively on the threat of climate change on its indigenous communities.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has expressed concern for Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira on Twitter, saying: “I hope they are found soon, that they are safe and well.”

The region has seen repeated shootings between hunters and fishers and official security agents, who have a permanent base in the area, known for having the world’s largest population of uncontacted indigenous people.

In September 2019, an employee of the indigenous affairs agency was shot dead in Tabatinga, the largest city in the region. The crime was never solved.