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Alia is joined by Wassim Nasr, the veteran French journalist for France24 and Senior Fellow at the Soufan Center. Wassim talks us through the spectacular April 25th offensive across Mali by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate that looks set to soon make a play to take over the whole country. They discuss the setbacks of the Wagner Group – now Africa Corps – campaign to roll back the jihadist advance in Mali, as well as the Kremlin’s goals in the Sahel. Wassim offers his views on the way forward in Mali, and whether it makes sense to negotiate with an al-Qaeda ally like JNIM. Alia and Wassim also cover the high risk of JNIM defections to the Islamic State.

The Guns for Hire podcast is written, produced and hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi.

Get in touch at: gunsforhirepodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to Alia's (free) Substack, "highly irregular": https://highlyirregular.substack.com/

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Alia is joined by Daniel McLaughlin, an international lawyer and Legal Director of the Centre for Justice and Accountability (CJA), a California-based legal nonprofit working on behalf of victims of torture and other atrocity crimes. Daniel and CJA are leading a civil suit in San Diego against a Delaware-registered PMC for war crimes in Yemen. They represent the Yemeni parliamentarian Anssaf Ali Mayo, who was one of the targets of an alleged hit-squad in Yemen. Daniel talks us through the explosive facts of the case, how it ended up in a California courtroom ten years later, and which US and international laws were ostensibly broken by the PMC. He also argues forcefully that the US government has a duty to regulate how former members of its military use their training and know-how.

The Guns for Hire podcast is written, produced and hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi.

Get in touch at: gunsforhirepodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to Alia's (free) Substack, "highly irregular": https://highlyirregular.substack.com/

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Alia sits down with Dimko Zhluktenko, a Ukrainian drone pilot and analyst within the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Ukrainian military. They discuss the realities of drone warfare in Ukraine, as well as the ways in which mercenary forces change the nature and tempo of battle. Dimko describes how he and his comrades are combatting Shahed drones, the psychological mechanisms necessary to keep fighting an army which uses waves of expendable manpower, and the need for NATO to start thinking of drones as bullets. Dimko also talks about how procurement and innovation cycles on both sides of the war are now measured in weeks, and how the geeks of war have turned the tide in Ukraine.

The Guns for Hire podcast is written, produced and hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi.

Get in touch at: gunsforhirepodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to Alia's (free) Substack, "highly irregular": https://highlyirregular.substack.com/