April 15 (UPI) — The United States and a coalition of six other nations dedicated to disrupting terrorist financial networks have imposed sanctions against 15 accused leaders of the Somalia-based al-Shabaab militant group.
The sanctions were announced Monday by the U.S. Treasury, which said they target members of the designated terrorist organization involved in a range of activities from fundraising to improvised explosive device proliferation.
The 15 alleged terrorists are considered key regional leaders throughout Somalia and have been accused of generating funds for al-Shabaab through illegal fee collection from locals as well as conducting kidnappings, dispatching their own police service to control residents and manufacturing and placing IEDs.
“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,” Treasury’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Anna Morris said in a statement.
The sanctions are the eighth round from the Terrorist Financing Target Center, consisting of the United States, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Founded in 2017, the TFTC aims to counter terrorist financing networks through conducting joint disruption actions, including sanctions and law enforcement operations, as well as sharing information about related concerns and offering capacity-building assistance.
“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,” Morris said.
The announcement comes after the Treasury sanctioned 26 people and entities connected with al-Shabaab.
