US sanctions four members of ISIS cell in SA

The US State Department designated four members of an Islamic State cell in South Africa and eight companies run or controlled by them for providing support to the terrorist group.

The State Department said Nufael Akbar, Yunus Mohamad Akbar, Mohamad Akbar and Umar Akbar are associates of Treasury-designated ISIS cell leader Farhad Hoomer, who continues to pursue the organisation’s objectives in southern Africa and express the will and intent to attack the interests of the US and its allies.

“Treasury is targeting key individuals in ISIS’s network in South Africa, as well as their business assets, who have played pivotal roles in enabling terrorism and other criminal activities in the region,” Brian E. Nelson, Treasury’s under secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.

The step comes almost two weeks after the US Embassy warned that there’s a risk of a terror attack in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, without providing more information.

Islamic State previously threatened to attack South Africa for its involvement in a counter-insurgency operation in neighbouring Mozambique, where the Islamist militants have been carrying out attacks since 2017. South Africa is part of the 16-member Southern African Development Community economic bloc that deployed forces last year to help the Mozambican government quell the violence.