British journalist Mark Doyle, best known for his reporting on conflicts in Africa in the 1990s and 2000s, has died after a short illness.

After living in Africa, he joined the BBC in 1986. Doyle became East Africa correspondent in 1993 and made his mark covering the Rwandan genocide a year later.

As West Africa correspondent from 1997 to 2002, he reported on Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war and aftermath of Liberia’s conflict.

Following Doyle’s death, BBC foreign editor Paul Danahar said he was a “legendary figure”, as well as a” brilliant, brave, empathetic reporter”.

The BBC’s Andrew Harding, who worked with Doyle, paid tribute to his former colleague in a 2015 article, published to mark his departure from the national broadcaster.

In the piece Fergal Keane, another prominent BBC correspondent in Africa, recalled their stint in Rwanda in 1994. “He stayed longer than any of us,” Keane said of Doyle. “Those who were in that awful place at that awful time will know what Mark Doyle gave for the cause of truth and for the BBC.”

In the same article Sir David Richards, who headed British forces struggling to stop Sierra Leone’s civil war in 2000, also praised Doyle.

Sir David said his reporting helped convince the UK government of the need for a robust intervention. “Hence the saving of thousands of Sierra Leonean lives that would otherwise have been at huge risk,” he said.

In 2004 Doyle won first prize in the UN Correspondents Association/UN Foundation Awards for his coverage of post-war Liberia.

He became BBC World Affairs correspondent before retiring from the BBC in 2015.