The Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre (TFTC) is designating three Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, facilitators in Africa. These individuals, designated on July 14, have served as key ISIS financiers and operatives, facilitating the activities of the terrorist group and its leaders operating across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and South Africa.
The Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre is a multilateral body created to strengthen cooperation among seven countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the United States - to disrupt terrorist financing networks and related activities of mutual concern.
Established in 2017, it is focused on coordinating joint disruptive actions, including targeted sanctions, exchanging actionable information on terrorist financing networks, and providing capacity-building workshops to strengthen institutional defences against terrorist financing.
One of those designated is Zayd Gangat. He is a South Africa-based ISIS facilitator and trainer. ISIS leaders in South Africa have historically used robbery, extortion, and kidnap for ransom operations to generate funds for the group.
Also designated is DRC-based Hamidah Nabagala, who serves as an intermediary for ISIS financial flows in central Africa. Additionally, Nabagala has been accused of funding the October 2021 Kampala bombing, which killed one and injured at least three others. In 2021, Ugandan authorities arrested an ISIS operative that had received funding from Nabagala. She also sought to smuggle her three children out of Uganda to send them to ISIS-affiliate camps in the DRC.
Since 2019, Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has been the head of the ISIS affiliate in Somalia and personally played a key role in the delivery of foreign fighters, supplies and ammunition on behalf of ISIS-Somalia, which serves as a hub for disbursing funds and guidance to ISIS branches and networks across the continent. ISIS-Somalia has generated up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a month through extortion and other illicit enterprises, totally $2.5 million in 2021 and $2 million in the first half of 2022.
The designations “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 Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith. “The United States, along with our TFTC partners, remains resolved to target the terrorist groups, their financiers, and their facilitation networks that enable their deadly attacks and destabilizing activities around the globe.” [VOA/VP]
