The Treasury Department on Friday announced new sanctions against four members of an Islamic State cell in South Africa and eight of their companies for providing technical, financial or material support to the terrorist group.
«The Treasury Department is targeting key individuals in the Islamic State network in South Africa, as well as their business assets, who have played a key role in enabling terrorism and other criminal activity in the region,» Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement.
Those sanctioned — including brothers Nufael Akbar and Yunus Mohamad Akbar, as well as Mohamad Akbar and Umar Akbar — are part of an Islamic State cell based in Durban, South Africa, led by Farhad Hoomer.
While Nufael Akbar is a central command figure in the cell, his brother Yunus is its logistical coordinator. Meanwhile, both Mohamad Akbar and Umar Akbar were arrested in 2018 by South African authorities along with Hoomer for their involvement in a plot to deploy improvised incendiary devices near a mosque and commercial buildings.
These sanctions come nearly two weeks after the U.S. Embassy in the country warned that there is a risk of a terrorist attack in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, without providing further information.
«The U.S. Government has received information that terrorists may be planning to perpetrate an attack against large concentrations of people at an unspecified location in the Sandton area,» read the alert issued by the U.S. legation.
Johannesburg has not suffered a major attack in recent decades, although the country is under threat from the Islamic State group, which has warned of possible attacks in retaliation for South African involvement in anti-terrorist operations in northern Mozambique.
