Four SA-based Islamic extremist organisers are facing US sanctions for financially facilitating terrorist activities in Africa.
They are Farhad Hoomer from Durban, who was arrested in 2018 for his involvement in a plan to blow up a mosque in Verulam and a Woolworths store in Gateway; Siraaj Miller, who leads a Cape Town-based group of Islamic State (IS) supporters and who has trained members to conduct robberies to raise funds for the organisation; Abdella Hussein Abadigga, an Ethiopian national who controlled two mosques in SA and used his position to extort money from worshippers to send via a hawala (an informal money transfer) to IS supporters elsewhere in Africa; and Peter Charles Mbaga, a Tanzanian national who facilitated funds transfers from SA and who sought to procure weapons from Mozambique.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and Rwanda sent troops to Mozambique’s Cabo Degardo province in 2021 in an effort to push back the insurgents and save lives. The province has been experiencing an extremist insurgency over the past five years.
The decision by the US has confirmed fears that the insurgents in Mozambique have links to SA. The men, named in a release Tuesday by the US Treasury department, have been playing “an increasingly central role in facilitating the transfer of funds from the top of the ISIS hierarchy to branches across Africa”, according to the release.
The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated them Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and ISIS-Mozambique (ISIS-M) financial facilitators based in SA. Both groups are regarded by the US as terrorist organisations.
Of the four, Hoomer is the best-known. He and 11 other accused walked free as the Verulam mosque bombing case was struck from the court roll in 2020 after the state asked for another postponement a year and nine months into the case. The US state department said in its statement it is working with its African partners, which includes SA “to dismantle ISIS financial support networks on the continent”.
It said IS has attempted to expand its influence in Africa “through large-scale operations particularly in areas where government control is limited”.
Its branches in Africa get their money through theft, extortion of local populations, kidnapping for ransom, as well as financial support, from the IS hierarchy.
The US said its action was to “further disrupt and expose key ISIS and ISIS-M supporters who raise revenue for ISIS And exploit SA's financial system to facilitate funding for ISIS branches and networks across Africa”.
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