Financier of Islamic State paid money to rebel group in eastern Congo

An Islamist rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo received money from a financier linked to Islamic State, suggesting tentative ties between the Congo insurgents and other jihadists in Africa and beyond, a report said on Thursday.

Islamist “financial facilitator” Waleed Ahmed Zein paid the Allied Democratic Forces at least once, said the report from New York University’s Congo Research Group and the Bridgeway Foundation that cited U.S. sources and an ADF defector.

Zein is on a U.S. government sanctions list and was arrested in his home country of Kenya in July for links to Islamic State. The payments were made in recent years but it was not clear when, how much was paid or how the money was used.

The Congolese government blames the ADF for a series of massacres in the last two years in the east of the country where violence around the city of Beni has hobbled efforts to contain an Ebola outbreak.

The ADF was set up by Ugandan Muslims in the 1990s purporting to fight for the rights of the Tablighi Jamaat sect, although it turned to banditry after crossing Uganda’s western border with Congo.

The Congolese and Ugandan governments accuse the ADF of links with jihadists like al Qaeda but has offered little evidence to back up these claims.

The payment was made as the ADF seeks to align itself with Islamic State, Nigeria-based Boko Haram and al Qaeda and other groups.

Source: Defence