How Heavenly South Africa Became the Continent's Top Terrorist Financing Center

The country's position as Africa's most industrialized and financially advanced market is coupled with ties to organized crime and corruption. Photo: Stefano Politi. Markovina/Alamy Stock Photo

Farhad Humer claims to be an honest businessman who sells jewelry and sells real estate for a living in the South African port city of Durban.

Ninth's father, 47, told The Sunday Telegraph, that earns money by «working hard, finding old, discarded jewelry and creating new jewelry.»

The United States, however, insists that his dealings are more sinister. Instead, they argue, he is a dangerous terrorist leader, raising and funneling funds for Islamic State (IS) cells across Africa.

To Western counterterrorism officials, Mr. Humer represents a typical threat that has made popular a holiday destination and a safari to the center of terrorist financing on the continent.

According to the US Treasury, he is pursuing IS «targets» in southern Africa and vows to attack US and allied interests and raise money through extortion and kidnapping.

Farhad Humer is considered a dangerous terrorist leader

Mr. Humer vehemently denies this. “Where does the US get information from? Why am I always the center of attention? he asked. Although he has been charged and cleared of terrorism twice, he is under heavy international banking sanctions, which means he cannot have an account or transact.

Mr Humer is among a growing number of South African citizens and businesses on international sanctions lists.

Last year, the United Nations warned of «the growing role of individuals in South Africa in facilitating the transfer of funds from the [Islamic State] leadership to affiliates in Africa.»

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At the same time, the US Department of the Treasury said that «the members and partners of the IS group in South Africa are playing an increasingly important role in facilitating the transfer of funds from the top of the [Islamic State] hierarchy to affiliates throughout Africa.»

Growing Concern over South Africa's inability to curb illicit finance has led the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Paris-based anti-money laundering body, to put it on a «grey list» of troubled countries.

< p >According to Raffaello Pantucci of the Royal United Services Institute, South Africa has long been considered a conduit for terrorist financing, and several previous international conspiracies have been linked to the country.

Its position as Africa's most industrialized and financially advanced market. combined with links to organized crime and corruption.

He said: “It's a well-functioning economy, which makes it a good place to launder things. It's a good balance between stability and things that work, but at the same time being corrupt.»

Thailand once had a similar reputation, but it's starting to bounce back.

The spread of ISIS in Africa

South Africa also attracts a large number of migrants from across the continent looking for work and has many formal and informal remittance and remittance networks through which they can send money home. South African security forces are also accused of pandering to the threat of jihadist terrorist networks because the country has all but escaped their attacks.

Analysts say the country has come under increased scrutiny in recent years because Africa has become the main scene of the Islamic State's resurgence after it was ousted from its caliphate in Syria. Groups pledged allegiance to the organization spread throughout the Sahel, as well as in Somalia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Local al-Qaeda organizations also gained ground.

Then attention spread even further when both America and the UK warned their citizens of a possible terrorist group in Johannesburg last October.

The funds to support the groups are said to come from a range of black market operations, from drug trafficking and precious minerals to hostage taking. The funding streams even include online sexual extortion scams, where victims are blackmailed after being coaxed into sharing intimate photos on dating apps.

Once collected, the money often circulates in the form of tiny cash, according to police investigators. transfers that are often sent to the mobile phone and are too small to attract attention.

Overall, according to an investigation by the South African weekly The Sunday Times, between 2020 and 2021, about £273 million was sent from South Africa to Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria and Bangladesh using almost 60,000 unregistered SIM cards.

Mr. Humer, who has three wives, meanwhile continues to protest his innocence and complains that the sanctions against him have ruined his life.

He said: “It affected me so much. My bank accounts have been closed, I cannot open a new account anywhere. All the banks are warning me.»

Jasmine Opperman, a respected security analyst, said: «The US and the UN have repeatedly mentioned the same names in connection with terrorist financing, which is at such a level that the US has introduced sanctions.”

She said that if there is evidence against Mr. Humer, he should be tried in South Africa.

“Terrorist financing is not a simple procedure for presenting evidence in court, but, of course, if you are in the stage of applying sanctions, then you should have enough intelligence to be able to direct the prosecution.”