The seven members of the Terrorist Finance Targeting Center announced joint designations of 15 leaders, operatives and financial facilitators of the Somali Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced on Monday.
The 15 individuals were “involved in a wide range of activities in support of al-Shabaab, including fundraising and proliferation of IEDs,” the department stated.
“Al-Shabaab continues to terrorize and extort the Somali people, forcing farmers to turn over livestock as ‘donations’ and kidnapping civilians while it destabilizes the wider region through its campaign of violence,” said Anna Morris, the treasury’s acting assistant secretary for terrorist financing. “Today, the TFTC is acting to deny al-Shabab access to regional and international financial networks to secure funding, coordinate attacks, and enable its violent activities.”
“TFTC member states are stronger and more effective when working together to counter these shared threats to the international financial system, and we will maintain intensive pressure on terrorist actors and their financial networks,” she added.
The TFTC, established in May 2017, was created to “enhance multilateral cooperation against terrorist financing between the United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council members,” which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This is the eighth round of joint designations.
In January, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to terrorism charges over his attempt to join al-Shabaab, according to the U.S. State Department.
