The United States is committed to disrupting and dismantling the illicit funding of terrorist organizations, including all branches of ISIS. In Africa, the United States is working with its partners, including South Africa, to dismantle ISIS financial support networks on the continent.
The United States is particularly concerned about the increasing terrorism threat in Africa. ISIS and its branches and networks have metastasized in pockets across Africa and grafted extremist ideology onto long-simmering conflicts, providing them new volatility and lethality.
“Financing continues to be the lifeblood for terrorists,” warned U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Senior Advisor for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations. “We must bolster our efforts to go after terrorist financiers and financial facilitators, and stymie vital resource streams that exploit weak regulatory oversight in vulnerable jurisdictions.”
Toward this goal, the United States designated four ISIS and ISIS-Mozambique, or ISIS-M, financial facilitators in South Africa. Farhad Hoomer, Siraaj Miller, Abdella Hussein Abadigga, and Peter Charles Mbaga are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups and their supporters, among others.
ISIS members and associates in South Africa are playing a role in facilitating the transfer of funds from the top of the ISIS hierarchy to branches across Africa. These designees have provided financial support or served as leaders of ISIS cells in South Africa. ISIS and ISIS-M are distinct and separately-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations under the Immigration and Nationality Act and Specially Designated Global Terrorists pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.
Some ISIS elements have attempted to expand influence in Africa through large-scale operations. ISIS branches in Africa rely on local fundraising schemes such as theft, extortion of local populations, kidnapping for ransom, as well as financial support from the ISIS hierarchy.
The United States will continue to take action to disrupt and expose key ISIS and ISIS-M supporters who raise revenue for ISIS and exploit South Africa’s financial system to facilitate funding for ISIS branches and networks across Africa.
