After Somalia, South African Islamic State-linked firms also targeted by US sanctions

The United States on Monday (7 November) imposed its second round of sanctions in less than a week on people and firms, this time targeting South African entities, who it says have provided financial or material support to the Islamic State (IS) group.
Following the financial penalties against a Somali IS weapons trafficking cell imposed by the US last week, the latest sanctions target South African entities, including one cell leader, Farhad Hoomer, accused of expressing “the will and intent to attack the interests of the United States,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. Government reports outline how the Islamic State group is expanding its presence in Africa, after the group faced defeats in Iraq and Syria. The State Department has designated nine groups worldwide as IS affiliates and foreign terrorist organizations.
In the latest action, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated four people and eight companies controlled by individuals that it said were in the South African IS cell. Their gold trading, construction and other firms are targeted for sanctions. The move freezes and blocks any potential transactions with US entities and prevents Americans from doing business with them. The Islamic State group sometimes is known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said the sanctions target “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.”