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A new report released by the UN Sanctions Committee on Somalia has documented that Al-Shabaab remains financially strong in Somalia thanks to a deep infiltration network into the Somali financial system. Al Shabaab generated approximately $ 13 million (Sh1.3 billion) between December 2019 and August 2020. The report states that “Al Shabaab remains in a strong financial position and is generating a significant budget surplus, part of which is invested in purchases. owned and commercial activities in Mogadishu “. The UN report says the group had funded various small and medium-sized businesses, including Mogadishu’s main Bakara market which sells everything from weapons to food. The report includes details of two bank accounts held at Salaam Somali Bank, which was founded in 2009 as part of the Hormuud group of companies.
Somali bank Salaam of the Hormuud Telecom group is linked to the Al-Shabaab terrorists.
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, more commonly known as Al-Shabaab, is a jihadist fundamentalist terrorist group based in East Africa. Established in the late 1990s, the Somalia-based terrorist group seeks to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state in the country that it hopes will eventually expand to encompass the entire Horn of Africa. Al-Shabaab controls much of the southern region of Somalia and small pockets in Kenya and Ethiopia along the border with Somalia.
According to extremism monitoring portal counterextremism.org, “Al-Shabaab’s ideology is generally described as a brand of Salafism and Wahhabism that supports takfir, the excommunication of apostates or unbelievers. Although it has stated many goals in the past. , the group fights first and foremost to create a fundamentalist Islamic state in the Horn of Africa that would include not only Somalia but also Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia “. The portal also notes that Al-Shabaab has had several sources of income throughout its history, including varying degrees of support from the Somali diaspora, locals, sponsors, and supported dawa (proselytism).
A new report released by the UN Sanctions Committee on Somalia has documented that Al-Shabaab remains financially strong in Somalia thanks to a deep infiltration network into the Somali financial system. Al Shabaab generated approximately $ 13 million (Sh1.3 billion) between December 2019 and August 2020. The report states that “Al Shabaab remains in a strong financial position and is generating a significant budget surplus, part of which is invested in purchases. owned and commercial activities in Mogadishu “. The UN report says the group had funded various small and medium-sized businesses, including Mogadishu’s main Bakara market, which sells everything from weapons to food. The report includes details of two bank accounts held at Salaam Somali Bank, which was founded in 2009 as part of the Hormuud group of companies.
The report also documents how Al Shabaab maintains its finances through extortion of civilians. In the government-controlled southern port of Kismayo, companies are forced to pay the insurgency between $ 300 and $ 600 monthly depending on their size, which could make them nearly $ 6 million a year from Kismayo alone, the relationship. “The Shabaabs also penetrated the port of Mogadishu, blackmailing importers to pay a levy on goods, the report said. In all documented cases, the entrepreneurs paid, citing threats and violence if they refused.”
The UN report noted that the militants stored and transferred money through accounts managed in the country’s local banks. The money, the report adds, is used to invest in real estate inside and outside the country. “Al-Shabaab’s use of formal banking systems allows for the immediate transfer and distribution of large amounts, even in areas it no longer controls directly, eliminating the risk of physically transporting cash across hostile territories.” Over a 48-hour period in May, more than $ 322,000 was transferred from these two accounts to a third bank account, the report said, showing “an institutional link between the accounts and an organized approach to distributing funds.”
The findings of the reports not only show Al-Shabaab’s deep infiltration of Somalia’s banking and financial sector, but also raise concerns about the efficiency of policies and measures aimed at curbing terrorist financing in the country.
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