How the Islamic State funds Uganda’s ADF

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), created in Uganda, have become the “province” of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

On Friday 16 June, the people of Mpondwe, in the Kasese district of western Uganda, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were horrified by the attack on Lubiriha Secondary School, which left at least 37 people dead, including several pupils.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. But the Ugandan armed forces blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group that emerged in Uganda in the mid-1990s but has been operating mainly in eastern DRC since the early 2000s.

Kampala said the attack was carried out by a five-man commando, without giving further details.

But the jihadists are said to have been weakened by Operation Shujaa (hero, in Swahili), a joint effort by Congolese and Ugandan forces over several months. According to the latest report by UN experts on the DRC, this operation has effectively slowed down the insurgents’ activities. However, the jihadist group has proved “resilient”, demonstrating its ability to carry out deadly attacks against civilians in both the DRC and Uganda, with extensive use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Hawala system, a way of financing terrorism

The group’s resilience is partly due to its financial links with the Islamic State (IS). In its report, published on 13 June, the Group of Experts details how the ADF is financially supported by the EI.

“Based on testimonies and documentary evidence, the group of experts was able to establish that Daech has been providing financial support to the ADF since at least 2019, through a complex financial system involving individuals in several countries on the continent, starting in Somalia and passing through South Africa and Uganda. The evidence gathered indicates that Daech used multiple channels,” read the 243-page document, at least seven of which are devoted to ADF activities.

The UN experts are convinced that Suhayl Salim Mohamed Abdelrahman, alias Bilal al-Sudani, who was killed in an American raid in Somalia last January, was at the heart of this financial system under the orders of Yusuf Abdulqadir Mumin, the founder of Islamic State in Somalia. According to experts, Abdirizak Mohamed Abdi Jimale, who joined the Islamic State in Somalia, transferred more than $400,000 between 2019 and 2020 to two EI agents based in Johannesburg, South Africa: Ugandan Maisa Cissa and Ethiopian Sheikh Abdi Oromay. To get the money to the recipients, the terrorist group used the “hawala” system through the company Heeryo Trading Entreprise, registered in Somalia and South Africa by Bashir Abdi Hassan, a Somali national based in Johannesburg.

Cissa and Oromay then asked Abdi Hassan to transfer some of the money back to Abdiweli Dubat Dege, a Kenyan, using a difficult to trace circuitous route. He then transferred the money to people in Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. UN experts allege that Abdi Hassan and Dege used hawala services.

They also used Mama Money and Selpal, two money transfer services “hijacked” by Islamic State and “other criminal networks to channel huge flows of money across the region”. Mama Money is a South African “fintech solution” that allows money to be sent to more than fifty African, Asian and European countries.

In addition, the group of experts working on the relationship between the Islamic State and the ADF points out that of the $400,000 initially transferred by Abdirizak Mohamed Abdi Jimale to contacts in Somalia, at least $60,000 was received by people close to ADF commander Meddie Nkalubo in Uganda.

“Among these individuals, Aisha Katushabe and Sanyi Nakitende, Meddie Nkalubo’s ex-wife, received $10,000 and $30,000 respectively in September 2020,” the experts reveal.

The funds received were then “given to two other ADF collaborators, including Hamidah Nabagala, who is accused of financing the Kampala bombings in October 2021”. While Aisha Katushabe and Sanyi Nakitende were arrested in Uganda the same month for their involvement in financing these attacks, Jimale was convicted by a Somali court for his links to Bilal al-Sudani and the Islamic State.

Is South Africa the bridge between IS and ADF?

The Islamic State’s first claims in the Great Lakes region date back to 2019. But according to UN experts, the first links between the jihadist group and the Ugandan rebels who moved into eastern Congo were established much earlier. Their investigations revealed that individuals based in South Africa helped establish links with the Islamic State as early as 2017, notably through Abwakasi, who joined the ADF from the southern African country in 2017.

The experts also claim to have obtained documents proving clear links between the ADF and Islamic State agents in South Africa. According to them, ‘these agents include Abdella Hussein Abadigga and Farhad Hoomer’, who are currently on the list of individuals sanctioned by the United States for their links to Bilal al Sudani and the Islamic State. Both are also in contact with Patrick Modise, who was seconded to the Islamic State’s immigration and logistics committee in Syria between 2014 and 2017.

The UN experts also point out that Abadiga headed an Islamic State cell in South Africa after his time in Syria in 2014. All these operatives were in contact with each other and with Abwakasi. Modise, however, was instrumental in establishing the first contacts between the ADF and the Islamic State in 2017. He had informed Musa Baluku that the Islamic State had accepted the pledge of allegiance in October 2017.

On his way to Goma from South Africa, the same Abadigga and three others were arrested while trying to join the ADF.

He was carrying two drones and a camera intended for the ADF. Abwakasi reportedly tried to secure their release through Farhad Hoomer, who travelled to the DRC in 2018. After his release, Abadigga returned to South Africa where, according to the Expert Group, he continued to run an Islamic State cell. He was arrested in late 2022 for involvement in a terrorist threat.

Meddie Nkalubo, one of the key ADF commanders responsible for working with Daesh at regional level, received substantial contributions from an ADF collaborator and recruiter, Swalleh Abubakar. He was linked to the ADF-affiliated Usafi mosque in Kampala’s Kisenyi district. In April 2021, he transferred $30,000 to Nkalubo’s ex-wife, Sanyu Nakitende, in Lusaka, Zambia.

Until 2022, the Islamic State’s province in southern Africa consisted of the ADF and the Mozambican jihadist group Ahl Sunna Wal Jamm’a, better known as “al-shabab”, operating in Cabo Delgado, not to be confused with the al-Qaeda-linked “al-Shababs” of Somalia. The Islamic State has since turned it into a province in its own right, like the Sahel cut off from Nigeria.

Source » apanews