US sanctions six Nigerians for aiding Boko Haram

The men were found guilty of setting up a cell in the United Arab Emirates to raise funds for Boko Haram.

The United States has imposed new sanctions on individuals connected with Nigeria’s armed group Boko Haram, the Treasury Department announced.

Six Nigerian nationals who were found guilty of setting up a Boko Haram cell in the United Arab Emirates to raise funds for fighters in Nigeria have been placed on the sanctions list.

“With this action, the United States joins the UAE in targeting terrorist financing networks of mutual concern,” Under-Secretary of the Treasury Brian Nelson said on Friday.

“Treasury continues to target financial facilitators of terrorist activity worldwide. We welcome multilateral action on this Boko Haram network to ensure that it is not able to move any further funds through the international financial system,” he added.

The men, identified as Abdurrahman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad, were convicted in the UAE of attempting to send $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria.

Adamu and Muhammad were sentenced to life in prison for violating UAE anti-terrorism laws, while Musa, Yusuf, Isa and Alhassan received sentences of 10 years in prison followed by deportation.

“All property and interests in property of the individuals named above, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons, must be blocked and reported to OFAC,” the Treasury said in a statement.

The US officially designated Boko Haram a “foreign terrorist group” in 2013. According to the State Department, the group is “responsible for numerous attacks in the northern and northeastern regions of the country, as well as in the Lake Chad Basin in Cameroon, Chad and Niger that have killed thousands of people since 2009”.

Separately, the Treasury also designated five individuals and five entities connected to Myanmar’s military. The move came after the US said it has formally determined Myanmar’s army committed genocide and crimes against humanity in its violence against the Rohingya minority.