WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf, the head of the finance office of the Somalia-based affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), designating him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has 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 generates much of its revenue through extortion, specifically targeting local communities for money and recruits, often under the threat of violence.
“Terrorist groups, and ISIS-Somalia specifically, seek to exploit institutional vulnerabilities to finance their activities. The sanctions imposed today demonstrate the U.S. commitment to leveraging our authorities in support of our partners, including the Federal Government of Somalia, in their efforts to counter terrorist financing and strengthen national and regional stability and security,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson after meeting with government officials and the Somali private sector in Mogadishu.
Today’s action builds on OFAC’s previous designations in November 2022 of a transnational ISIS-Somalia weapons trafficking network and senior members of the terrorist group. It also follows U.S. military action in January of this year that targeted and killed Somalia-based ISIS leader Suhayl Salim Abd El-Rahman, more commonly known as Bilal al-Sudani.
ISIS FINANCING IN SOMALIA
ISIS-Somalia has continued to facilitate financial transfers, including through mobile money, to support ISIS’s destabilizing activities across Africa. ISIS-Somalia has received most of its revenue — amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars per month — from the extortion of financial institutions, mobile money service providers, and other local businesses, most of which were located in the Port of Bosaso in the Bari region, Somalia. ISIS has moved these funds via cash transfers, and money laundering through businesses, hawalas, banks, and mobile money transfers within Somalia. In the first half of 2022, ISIS-Somalia generated nearly $2 million by collecting extortion payments from local businesses, related imports, livestock, and agriculture. In 2021, ISIS-Somalia generated an estimated $2.5 million in revenue. ISIS-Somalia is one of the most significant ISIS affiliates in Africa, generating revenue for ISIS to disburse branches and networks across the continent.
Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has served as the head of ISIS-Somalia’s finance office since at least late 2019. Yusuf, a key senior member of ISIS-Somalia, meets with and reports to other ISIS leaders in Somalia, including ISIS al-Karrar office emir Abdiqadir Mumin and ISIS-Somalia emir Abdirahman Fahiye Isse Mohamud, whom the Department of State and OFAC designated in 2016 and 2022, respectively. Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has also directed the delivery of foreign fighters, supplies, and ammunition on behalf of ISIS. Yusuf was partially responsible for managing the revenue generated by ISIS-Somalia and has facilitated transfers for ISIS.
Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, ISIS-Somalia.
