The United States has announced a reward for credible information on the financial networks of ISIS-Somalia, branding the group as one of the most powerful Islamic State affiliates in Africa and a critical revenue hub sustaining the organisation’s global operations.
Through its Rewards for Justice Program, the US State Department said ISIS-Somalia has emerged as a central pillar in ISIS’s international financial structure, channeling resources to militants beyond the Horn of Africa and enabling the group’s worldwide activities.
“ISIS-Somalia is one of ISIS’s most significant affiliates in Africa and a primary revenue generator and funding hub for ISIS’s global networks,” the department declared, underlining the group’s pivotal role in propping up ISIS franchises across multiple regions.
American officials have long assessed that ISIS-Somalia’s financial networks play an instrumental role in funding the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to US intelligence, the same channels were used to support ISKP’s operations ahead of the August 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, a devastating attack that killed 13 American servicemen and scores of Afghan civilians during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The announcement marks part of Washington’s wider counterterrorism strategy aimed at dismantling the Islamic State’s transnational financing infrastructure. By targeting ISIS-Somalia’s financial facilitators, US officials hope to disrupt what they describe as one of the group’s most vital lifelines for sustaining insurgency and spreading influence across regions.
The Rewards for Justice Program, which has disbursed millions of dollars since its inception, will compensate individuals who provide actionable intelligence leading to the identification, disruption, or dismantling of ISIS-Somalia’s financial apparatus. Officials emphasised that cutting off funding streams remains a cornerstone of Washington’s global counterterrorism efforts.
