Mogadishu, SONNA – President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud received Brian Nelson, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Treasury. They discussed Somalia-U.S. cooperation in countering the financing of terrorism, debt relief under the HIPIC program, and the ongoing offensive against al-Shabaab.
In his press conference after the meeting, Nelson said that he had been meeting with his Somali and Kenyan counterparts to deepen their areas of cooperation while expanding their partnership to better meet the shared challenges and opportunities in front of them.
Nelson stated that Africa will shape the future of the global economy and that the U.S. Treasury is committed to deepening its ties and financial connections across the continent. A core focus of his meetings in Mogadishu and Nairobi has been discussing how they can bolster their partnership to combat terrorist financing in the region.
Later today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will designate a prominent terrorist financier to support Somalia and Kenya’s efforts to disrupt terrorist financing. Nelson spoke with Somali authorities on how they can work together to amplify the impact of this and future actions targeting terrorist actors in Somalia.
In his meetings with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, they discussed three main topics: progress on building capacity to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, progress to advance critical reforms that will allow Somalia to put revenue to use developing its economy rather than servicing debt, and a new strategy from the Treasury Department on addressing financial de-risking.
Nelson also spoke with representatives from Somalia’s banking and mobile money services sectors, emphasizing the crucial role these private sector actors play in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing. He also addressed the spillover effects of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, stating that it continues to disproportionately hurt countries in Africa, and that the Horn of Africa is facing massive food insecurity and famine. The Treasury has taken unprecedented steps to ensure food and humanitarian-related transactions can flow unimpeded.
Nelson also mentioned that since the very beginning, there have always been exemptions from Russia’s sanctions for food, agriculture, and humanitarian transactions. He stated that this is just an overview of his priorities on this trip, as well as more broadly, to deepen partnerships across Africa to build financial connections, respond to the pressing challenges in the region, and identify opportunities to capitalize on the entrepreneurial dynamism in this region and across the continent.
