The US-led Counter ISIS Finance Group (CIFG) has warned that the Islamic State is capitalising on Africa’s weak counter-terrorism architecture to raise funds on the continent, with South Africa being one of the major conduits for moving money.
In a report made public this week, the CFIG – a working group of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS – noted that ISIS perceived Africa as a more permissive environment for its financial activities and has increasingly relied on its Africa-based branches to generate revenues.
“Since 2019, ISIS has been increasingly relying on Africa-based branches to generate revenues probably because the group perceives less counterterrorism pressure in Africa compared to the Middle East,” the report said.
It revealed that ISIS-Somalia has generated over US$6 million in the past two years from extortion and exploited the Somali financial system to launder money through businesses, hawalas, banks, and mobile money transfers.
“Since 2022, the ISIS branch in Somalia probably has been ISIS’s primary revenue generator, earning approximately US$6 million mostly from extortion and local taxes.”
It also noted that South Africa-based banks have become conduits for ISIS fund transfers, with the terrorist organisation using these channels to move funds from its continental headquarters in Somalia – the General Directorate of Provinces (GDP) – to its regional cells.
“ISIS has used South Africa-based banks to transfer funds from the GDP to ISIS in Central Africa,” the report said.
Additionally, ISIS in east and southern Africa primarily uses hawalas – an informal money transfer system – to move funds.”
In 2022, the US designated four South Africa-based alleged funders of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and ISIS-Mozambique in a move that was meant to dismantle financial support networks for terrorist groups across the continent.
Farhad Hoomer, Siraaj Miller, Abdella Abadigga and Peter Mbaga were alleged to be the main facilitators of funding for ISIS branches and networks across Africa, including the Islamic State for West Africa Province that is perpetrating evil in northern Nigeria.
JN/APA