The attack in New Orleans, United States, in which a lone wolf terrorist rammed his truck into a crowd, signalled that the Islamic State was far from dead. It was, in fact, a wake-up call not just for Intelligence agencies in the US but for the entire world.
When the Islamic State was wiped out to a large extent in Syria and Iraq, many believed that they had seen the end of the outfit. Any chance of a revival at that time was bleak since the US forces had managed to kill off its self-declared Caliph Abū Bakr Al-Baghdadi. However, Baghdadi had managed to sow the seeds of poison well before his death and had ordered his men to return to their homeland and carry out lone-wolf attacks.
The Islamic State still has a worldwide presence, and one wonders, despite it being dead in main areas, how does it manage to raise funds and run operations? The answer to this question lies in Somalia.
The Somalian connection
Following the death of Baghdadi, the Islamic State lost a command centre. There was no real successor, and the Islamic State did run on autopilot mode thanks to a large number of radical Muslims across the globe who were not just inspired by the ideology of the terror group but were also self-motivated.
In Somalia, the Islamic State has found its perfect leader in Abdul Qadir Mumin. Currently, in the ranks, he is the most powerful and important leader of the outfit and runs all the operations from Somalia. The entire network of the Islamic State, including the Khorasan Province, which operates out of Afghanistan, is under his control. Every branch of the Islamic State takes orders from Mumin.
Mumin, who is now referred to as Sheikh Mumin, was born in Puntland, Somalia. However, he lived in Sweden, after which he moved to England and acquired British nationality.
In the early 2000s, he managed to build a reputation among the Muslims of London and Leicester. He was a firebrand radical preacher in Mosques who indulged in widespread radicalisation. He also released several online videos at that time to put forth his message. His rise to fame was such that he was chosen to be the propagandist for the Al-Shabaab group which is linked to the Al-Qaeda. In 2015, he, however, moved away from the group and pledged his support to the Islamic State under Baghdadi.
Mumin is a powerful figure, and currently, he is considered to be the Caliph of the Islamic State. Apart from his fiery speeches and organisational skills, he also is key to the outfit’s finances.
An Intelligence Bureau official tells the Organiser that Mumin has a wide reach and that the respect that he commands is the reason why the funds flow into his coffers so easily. As of today, nearly 90 percent of the outfit funding comes from Somalia, and Mumin oversees that.
Somalia has been an important destination for nearly all terror groups when it comes to raising finances. Funds have been moved from Somalia to South Africa, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Mumin controls the finances of Somalia to a large extent while also distributing volunteers to the terror group. He is known to have financed the Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces, which is the Islamic State’s wing in Congo.
What makes Mumin so powerful is that he has been referred to as the Caliph despite him not being an Arab. There were fissures within the group at first about this, but the sheer dedication with which Mumin managed to radicalise Muslims and rope in the funds got him that acceptance even among the Arab fighters.
Mumin’s rise in the Islamic State also suggests a massive shift by the outfit. The outfit, which was largely focused on Syria and Iraq and later Afghanistan, is now moving towards Africa. Today, nearly all the propaganda material distributed across the world comes from Africa.
Mumin has taken advantage of the system in Somalia to raise money. The terror group raises $100 million a year through extortion. The Islamic State operatives raid communities in Somalia that do not support it and then steal money and food from them. The Islamic State in Somalia, which is considered to be one of the most powerful terror groups in the world, works closely with the pirates. This has also helped the outfit raise a large number of funds to keep its operations alive across the globe.
