I’m an independent journalist, published by the BBC, The Irish Times, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, New Lines, Le Point and many others.
I mainly cover international stories - most recently, Iran's protests, Iraqi militia groups, narco-trafficking in Guinea Bissau, Hungary’s far-right and conflict in Cameroon. Closer to home, I've reported on all sorts, including the UK's recent wave of industrial action and Brexit.
Currently based in London, I do both print and broadcast – in English and French. Contact me here.
Recent work - World
At the epicentre of Mauritius’ narco trade
BBC Radio 4 (10/23) @17.06 mins
Vast sums of money transit through Karo Kalyptus, a slum of raw concrete and corrugated iron shacks on the outskirts of Fort Louis. I meet three brave women, sick of seeing their young being destroyed by heroin and synthetics..
Under Israeli attack: Who are the Christians of Gaza?
Al Jazeera (11/23)
Israel’s bombing of the Saint Porphyrius Church brought the existence of Gaza’s embattled Christian minority into sharp focus. Most have not left the besieged city, which lays claim to a rich seam of Christian heritage going back two millennia.
Are Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s hospitals legal?
Al Jazeera (11/23)
Gaza’s hospitals, many already on the brink of collapse, are coming under intensified attack as the Israeli military moves deeper into the enclave. What do the 1948 Geneva conventions say about attacks on medical facilities?
‘Kids whose insides are destroyed’: The return of drug abuse to Mauritius
Al Jazeera (10/23)
Heroin addiction, which peaked in the ‘90s, has made a roaring comeback in Mauritius, the drug rerouted to its shores through Madagascar on its journey from Afghanistan. In parallel, synthetics like “Black Mamba”, “Rambo” and “Murder” have taken hold.
Chagos: the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago at the heart of a major political struggle
New Lines (10/23)
As Britain prepares to hand over Chagos to Mauritius, many of the original islanders and their descendants feel they are being sidelined. Fifty years on from their brutal expulsion from their island home to make way for an American military base, is history repeating itself?
Chagos Islanders confront their postcolonial future
The Continent (10/23)
The dream is within touching distance. Olivier Bancoult has pulled off a feat many would once have considered impossible – his people are on the brink of being allowed to return to their fabled homeland of Chagos, which will soon pass into Mauritian ownership. But not everyone is happy.
Life on the edge for Turkey's fearful Syrian refugees
Irish Times (04/23)
Turkey has become a hostile environment for the 3.7 million Syrian refugees it hosts, most of whom have temporary protection ID cards, known as kimlic. The country operated a generous open-door policy after the Syrian war broke out in 2011, but as the economic crisis bites, hate crimes, racist rhetoric and bullying from officials have become the norm for many.
Turkey's earthquake survivors voice questions and fury
Irish Times (04/23)
The building is barely standing, great chunks of concrete ripped from the front, a radiator hanging by a thin pipe from the fourth floor. Yet Alper Nedirli and his mother Sevim have just risked their lives, climbing to their quake-hit apartment on the second floor to retrieve a couple of bags of clothes, plates and cups, some pictures, and a rug.
Iran: Rap and the regime
Irish Times (04/23)
When rapper Toomaj Salehi shot to fame in Iran, tearing strips off the regime with his lacerating lyrics, people wondered if he was for real. Songs like Soorakh Moosh (Mousehole), in which he warned the regime and its stooges to find a hiding place before an imminent day of reckoning, were political dynamite ...
Iraq - 20 years on
Byline Times (03/23)
From Operation Iraqi Freedom to Iranian Domination. Twenty years on from 'Operation Iraqi Freedom', few people have much time for America. Hundreds of thousands died as a result of the invasion, the ensuing sectarian civil war and the emergence of the Islamic State .
But, these days, much of the blame for the country’s ills tends to be laid at Iran’s door.
'Muqtada' - The cleric who has Iraq in his grip
Irish Times (01/23)
Ask any Iraqi about politics and talk will soon turn to Muqtada al-Sadr. Widely known by the mononym “Muqtada”, he wields unparalleled clout as Shia cleric, militia boss and political leader. Often described as mercurial, his sudden shifts of mood and changes of mind have the country mesmerised.
Michael Palin: Into Iraq
Spotlight (03/23)
Michael Palin’s home office is just as you’d expect it to be, with a view over sunlit brick chimneys, old photos and postcards pinned to corkboard, walls lined with books ... and a copy of the 1958 Iraqi Constitution lying somewhere amid the clutter.
“Milk? Sugar?” asks the Monty Python star, making me a cup of coffee ...
Recent work - UK
Who Owns London?
Spotlight (08/23)
London is like a crazy real-life Monopoly game. Against post-Brexit expectations, it remains one of the world’s most attractive safe deposit boxes for the uber-rich to pack their wealth. Meanwhile, the ordinary people who keep the city running – the teachers, the nurses and many other workers – struggle with rising rents …
The empire strikes back
Al Jazeera (03/23)
With Pakistani-origin Humza Yousaf in charge at Holyrood and Rishi Sunak, whose ancestors hail from India, leading at Westminster, it could be said that the United Kingdom is blazing a new trail in post-colonial history. For many, the irony of a Scots-Pakistani and a British Indian negotiating the partition of the UK is too compelling to ignore.
Who is Humza Yousaf?
Al Jazeera (03/23)
SNP bigwigs believe he is the man who can hold together an increasingly fractious party – now 16 years in power – while persuading a convincing majority of Scots to go it alone and leave the United Kingdom amid a deepening cost-of-living crisis.
But his rise comes just as the crisis-ridden SNP juggernaut has run into the sand.
Selected from archives
'Iraq is now a teenage country'
Twenty years on from the US-led invasion, three Iraqi artists explain how, after decades of being held back, they are taking back control of their country's narrative. Much of Iraq's story has been told in the West, deploying a visual shorthand of guns, bombs and oil derived from TV news, a dominant narrative that is hard to shift ...
Escape from Iran: 'My dream was to be a primary teacher. Now I'm holding a gun'
Irish Times (10/22)
Iran protests: 'We need the people to move and take down this government'
Irish Times (11/22)
The people in the bus were not afraid. They had just come from Iran, crossing the Zagros mountains into Iraqi Kurdistan. On the khaki and mustard slopes, positioned on the distinctive zigzag ridges marking the border, Iranian forces kept watch from their lookout post.
Who is the man driving UK’s ongoing rail strikes?
Al Jazeera (08/22)
Interview with Mick Lynch, the most talked about man in Britain. A social media phenomenon, his ability to tell simple truths about equality and social justice have captured the imagination of millions
Mosul’s new masters
After Isis, came the mafia. In Mosul, a jumbled assortment of Iran-backed militias, known collectively as the Hashd al-Shaabi, compete for their share of the spoils of war.
The vapers of Mosul
BBC Radio 4 (03/20) @11.14mins
Out on the hustle with three buccaneering entrepreneurs, selling vapes in war-torn Mosul. Moslawis are born entrepreneurs. Given half the chance, they can make their city great again.
The best weapon against war in Iraq is a waistcoat
For the dapper young men at Mr Erbil, style is survival. In their emporium of hip, espressos are sipped and style flaunted as chaos and menace swirl outside. No talk of religion or politics permitted.
‘You live with these men as a slave. It’s free for them to do anything’
Naveen Rasho endured five years of hell at the hands of Islamic State. She survived the fall of the caliphate in Baghuz, only to face the fresh horror of detention at Al Hawl camp in Syria with her captor’s three brides.
‘We are only 1,000, but we fight like 10,000.’
In the hills of northern Iraq, I meet showman general Hussein Yazdanpanah, whose Iranian Kurdish fighters are fighting against a resurgent Islamic State and the Tehran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias.
Global Ear: Dé:Nash
Hungarian rapper Dé:Nash mines his country’s collective consciousness, satirising the Fidesz regime’s use of ancient legend and historical grievances to craft a new national narrative.
’Licence to kill’
Cameroon’s bloody conflict between the regime and separatist rebels has been raging nearly three years. Government forces wield their ‘licence to kill’ liberally, with utter impunity.
Interview: Guinea-Bissau’s president
José Mário Vaz, president of Guinea-Bissau, appeals to world for help in fighting the cocaine cartels that he says are still using the fragile state as a trafficking hub.
