British photographer wins UN refugee agency prize

* Alixandra Fazzina is first journalist laureate * Annual Nansen Refugee Award created in 1954

GENEVA, July 9 (Reuters) - A British photo-journalist who documented the harrowing plight of refugees fleeing conflict from Kosovo to Somalia in the last decade has won the U.N. refugee agency's annual award.

Alixandra Fazzina is the first journalist to be awarded the Nansen Refugee Award, created in 1954 to honour her outstanding work on behalf of people fleeing war or persecution.

"She was chosen for her tireless dedication to uncovering and portraying the overlooked consequences of war," Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.

Fazzina's distinctive and moving photo reportages reveal human tragedies often neglected by mainstream media, the Geneva-based agency said in a statement.

It cited her coverage of land mine victims in Kosovo, civilians stranded behind enemy lines in Angola, the use of rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone, children abused by militias in Congo and Uganda, and refugees in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"For two years in Somalia she received no pay and spent weeks and months on end with people on the run, following them and feeling so passionate about bringing these untold stories to the rest of the world," Fleming said.

Fazzina's book, "A Million Shillings, Escape from Somalia", to be published in September, is based on her chronicling of desperate Somali migrants and refugees trying to reach Yemen by crossing the Gulf of Aden on boats run by smugglers' networks.

Fridtjof Nansen of Norway was the first U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the prize carries $100,000 which the winner can donate to a cause of his or her choice. The award ceremony will take place in Geneva on Oct. 5. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay)