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The United States (US) Department of Treasury on Monday sanctioned three Ugandan nationals they termed as Allied Democratic Front (ADF) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) financers.

In a statement issued on the Department of Treasury website noted that the three individuals: Abubakar Swalleh, Hamidah Nabagala and Zayd Gangat, served as key financiers and trusted operatives, enabling the activities of ISIS and its leaders across Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa.

“The United States is taking action against a network of three individuals associated with the expanded activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on the African continent. These individuals serve as key financiers and trusted operatives, enabling the activities of ISIS and its leaders across Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. They also serve as critical links between far-flung ISIS operations, including ISIS affiliates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Somalia, and ISIS cells in South Africa, allowing ISIS leadership to leverage each affiliate’s capabilities to conduct terrorist attacks that undermine peace and security in the region.” 

“Monday’s action underscores the crucial work of the counter ISIS finance group and the importance of effective information sharing among coalition countries to target ISIS’s facilitation networks,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.

“While we have made considerable progress over the nearly 10 years since the establishment of this working group, we must all remain vigilant because ISIS continues to develop new financial methods. The United States, in close coordination with our key partners, remains committed to disrupting the key nodes that enable disparate ISIS groups to work together and their ability to finance the group’s terrorist activities,” Nelson said.

Swalleh, a suspected Allied Democratic Forces terrorist was arrested in May in Zambia, and was on July 8, 2024, charged and remanded to Luzira Prison in Kampala. He appeared before Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court, presided over by Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayizzi. Abubaker was charged with terrorism financing, rendering technical support to the ADF, and professing to belong to a Terrorist organization.

The statement noted that, “This action is taken as part of the United States’ commitment to the mission of the Counter ISIS Finance Group (CIFG) that is holding its 20th meeting today to further international efforts to curb ISIS financing worldwide. The CIFG is a working group of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, which includes over 80 countries and international organizations”.

The US said the Monday designations are aimed at the threat ISIS poses to regional security and stability in eastern, central, and southern Africa. Treasury has targeted ISIS’s efforts to expand operations and raise funds on the African continent with designations of South Africa-based ISIS operatives, financial facilitators, and their business networks in March 1, 2022 and November 7, 2022, and a designation of a key Somalia-based ISIS finance official on July 27, 2023. The individuals sanctioned today are being designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups and their supporters.

ISIS facilitation network operating across Africa

Revealing details of each of their roles, the US noted that; Swalleh is a South Africa- and Zambia-based ISIS operative. He is involved in the physical transfer of funds from South Africa to the DRC. Additionally, Swalleh allegedly facilitates the movement of ISIS-affiliated individuals from Uganda to South Africa, and vice versa. Mohamed Ali Nkalubo, allegedly a DRC-based ISIS commander previously designated by the Department of State on December 8, 2023, relied on Swalleh to move funds and recruit members for ISIS’s DRC affiliate. Swalleh moved to South Africa under Nkalubo’s direction, where he has been involved in robberies and kidnap for ransom.

The US noted that 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 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.

The US noted that 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.

“Swalleh, Nabagala, and Gangat are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, ISIS, a person whose property and interest in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224,” the US Department of Treasury stated.

Sanctions implications

The statement noted that as a result of Monday’s action, all property and interests in property of the individuals named, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 per cent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC.

OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all dealings by US persons or within the US including transactions transiting the US that involve any property or interests in property of designated or blocked persons. U.S. persons must comply with OFAC regulations, including all US citizens and permanent resident aliens regardless of where they are located, all persons within the United States, and all US- incorporated entities and their foreign branches.

The US also noted that engaging in certain transactions with the individuals designated entails risk of secondary sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.

In March this year, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on 16 entities and individuals who compose an expansive business network spanning the Horn of Africa, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Cyprus that raised and laundered funds for al-Shabaab, a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qa’ida. 

Individuals within this network include influential businesspeople in the region that lend financial backing to al-Shabaab, a terrorist group responsible for some of the worst terrorist attacks in East Africa’s modern history. 

The US noted that these attacks had claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians.  These individuals and entities were designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups and their enablers.   

Among those sanctioned was a Ugandan firm, Uganda-based Haleel Commodities LTD which was designated pursuant to E.O. 13244, as amended, for being owned, controlled, or directed by, directly or indirectly, Farhan Hussein Hayder, a person whose property and interest in property were proposed to be blacked pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.

The US noted that Al-Shabaab generated over $100 million per year by extorting local businesses and individuals, as well as through the financial support of affiliated businesspeople. 

“The threat posed by al-Shabaab is not limited to Somalia.  Al-Shabaab’s revenues are disbursed to other al-Qa’ida-supported groups worldwide and help fund al-Qa’ida’s global ambitions to sow discord and undermine good governance.  This action continues Treasury’s efforts to disrupt al-Shabaab’s abuse of the regional financial system and builds on OFAC’s October 2022 designation of a network of al-Shabaab financial facilitators who served as key interlocutors between al-Shabaab and local businesses in Somalia.” 

The US noted that the network of individuals and entities designated had been involved in the raising and laundering of millions of dollars through several businesses at the direction and in the interest of al-Shabaab.

“Dubai-based Haleel Commodities L.L.C., also known as Haleel Group, is a key financial facilitator for al-Shabaab, which relies on the leaders of Haleel Group, as well as its branches and subsidiaries in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, and Cyprus to generate and launder funds.  Haleel Group’s subsidiaries in Cyprus include Haleel Finance LTD, Haleel Holdings, and Haleel LTD; the group also has branches in Kenya (Haleel Commodities Limited) and Uganda (Haleel Commodities LTD) and operates as Haleel Electronics in Somalia.”

The sanctions come in the wake of a joint operation codenamed Operation Shujaa by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) that was launched in November 2021.

The Operations Shujaa has since dislodged the ADF from their bases in the jungles of DRC. Several of its commanders and fighters have either been captured, killed or surrendered. Severa of their weapons destroyed and those abducted rescued.