NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 15 – The United States Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) has announced joint designations of three ISIS facilitators in Africa, in a coordinated effort to disrupt global terrorist financing networks.
According to a statement by the US Department of the Treasury, the designated individuals have served as key ISIS financiers and operatives, enabling the group’s activities across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, and South Africa.
Zayd Gangat, identified as a South Africa-based ISIS facilitator and trainer, is among those sanctioned.
US authorities indicated that ISIS leaders in South Africa have historically used robbery, extortion, and kidnap-for-ransom operations to generate funds to sustain their terror operations.
Hamidah Nabagala, based in the DRC, is alleged to be serving as an intermediary for ISIS financial flows in Central Africa.
The Treasury stated that Nabagala has been linked to the October 2021 bombing in Kampala, which killed one person and injured at least three others.
In 2021, Ugandan authorities arrested an ISIS operative who had received funding from Nabagala.
She is also accused of attempting to smuggle her three children out of Uganda to send them to ISIS-affiliated camps in the DRC.
Both Gangat and Nabagala were designated by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on July 23, 2024, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, for having materially supported ISIS.
The move coincided with the 20th meeting of the Counter ISIS Finance Group (CIFG).
Foreign fighters
The third individual, Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf, is based in Somalia and has led the ISIS affiliate in the country since 2018.
US authorities say he has played a critical role in facilitating the movement of foreign fighters, weapons, and supplies on behalf of ISIS-Somalia.
The Somali branch is reported to serve as a financial and operational hub for ISIS cells across the continent.
In 2021 alone, ISIS-Somalia reportedly generated up to $2.5 million through extortion and other illicit enterprises, with an additional $2 million accrued in the first half of 2022.
Yusuf was designated by OFAC on July 27, 2023, under the same executive order, for acting on behalf of ISIS-Somalia.
This marks the eighth round of joint designations by the TFTC, which was established in 2017 to strengthen cooperation between the United States and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in countering terrorist financing.
“Today’s joint action underscores our shared commitment to disrupting the ability of ISIS and other terrorist groups to access the international financial system wherever they seek to operate,” said Bradley Smith, Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
He added that the US, in collaboration with TFTC partners, remains committed to targeting terrorist groups, their financiers, and the facilitation networks that enable their deadly operations and destabilizing activities worldwide.
Smith promised continued coordination of joint sanctions, intelligence exchange on terrorist networks, and training to strengthen member states’ institutional capacity to combat terror financing.
