Financing Terrorism throughout Africa: ISIL Somalia and the Al-Karrar Office

Group Profile

In January 2023, Bilal-al-Sudani, a key financial facilitator of ISIL Somalia, was killed by the US. Weakening the al-Karrar office, the directing office of ISIL Somalia that acts as a major financial and administrative hub for the Islamic State, was a strategic objective associated with the operation. Despite these efforts, al-Karrar and ISIL Somalia have largely recovered. The affiliate continues to act as a coordination center across East and Southern Africa, financing operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and even Afghanistan through its connections with ISIL-KP.

Learn more about one of the Islamic State’s most lucrative affiliates below.

Origins and Operations

ISIL-Somalia originated from a split with Al Qaeda’s largest affiliate, Al Shabaab, in 2015. ISIL-Somalia was under the oversight of the Islamic State’s Yemeni Province before being designated as an independent province on December 24, 2017. The affiliate is based in the northern Puntland region of Somalia and is estimated to have between 100 and 200 fighters. ISIL-Somalia is not as operationally active as Al Shabaab, mainly conducting occasional assassinations or improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Somalia. Instead, ISIL-Somalia's influence stems from its coordination and facilitation roles within the Islamic State financial network across Africa and Asia through direction from the al-Karrar office.