WASHINGTON – Today, the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) announced joint designations of three ISIS facilitators in Africa. The individuals being designated have served as key ISIS financiers and operatives, facilitating the activities of the terrorist group and its leaders operating across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, and South Africa. This is the eighth round of joint designations by the TFTC.
“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 Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. 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.”
The TFTC, established in 2017 to enhance U.S.-Gulf Cooperation Council coordination against terrorist financing, 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 defenses against terrorist financing. Additional information on the TFTC is available on its website.
Background on Africa-based ISIS Facilitators
Zayd Gangat (Gangat) 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.
DRC-based Hamidah Nabagala (Nabagala) 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.
Gangat and Nabagala were designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on July 23, 2024 pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, for having materially supported ISIS. This action coincided with the 20th meeting of the Counter ISIS Finance Group (CIFG).
Since 2019, Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf (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.
Yusuf was designated by OFAC on July 27, 2023 pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, ISIS-Somalia.