The U.S. State Department has designated Seka Musa Baluku and Yasir Hassan of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

The pronouncement issued via a media note on Wednesday from the office of the Department’s spokesperson also extends to the two chapters of ISIS headed by both terrorists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ISIS-DRC) and Mozambique (ISIS-Mozambique) respectively. The chapters were also pronounced Foreign Terrorist Organisations.

The State Department’s designation of the two ISIS leaders as SDGT came after they met the criteria postulated under Executive Order 13224 while the pronouncement of the two ISIS chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organisations came after they satisfied necessary requirements provided under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended.

With the pronouncement, both terrorists along with their respective chapters thereby face, among other consequences, confiscation of “all property and interests in property of those designated that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction.”

It further warned U.S. citizens and foreign financial institutions to desist from going into any form of dealing with these groups or on their behalf as those who are found to run foul of the directive will face the punishment the law stipulates.

The U.S. Department stated, “it is a crime to knowingly provide material support or resources to ISIS-DRC or ISIS-Mozambique, or to attempt or conspire to do so.”

The announcement of the new designations is to put U.S. citizens and the international community on notice about the terrorist groups’ huge deadly potential risk they pose as well as for them to be able to easily identify their leaders.

Also called the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen, amongst other names, the terror group, led by Seka Musa Baluku, has orchestrated various vicious attacks against residents and the regional military forces, claiming the lives of over 849 civilians in 2020, in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces of the Eastern part of the DRC.

A United Nations report had previously disclosed ADF’s sanctioning by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the United Nations under the UN Security Council’s DRC sanctions regime for the group’s violence and atrocities in 2014.

Furthermore, “The U.S. Department of the Treasury also sanctioned six ADF members, including leader Seka Musa Baluku, in 2019 under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program for their roles in serious human rights abuse, with a subsequent United Nations sanctions listing for Baluku in early 2020 under the DRC sanctions program.”

Also, the ISIS-Mozambique, also named Ansar al-Sunna or al-Shabaab amongst other names, had in April 2018, pledged allegiance to ISIS and thereafter in August 2019, was formally recognised as an affiliate by ISIS-Core.

The Abu Yasir Hassan-led ISIS-Mozambique has been reported to have since October 2017, “killed more than 1,300 civilians, and it is estimated that more than 2,300 civilians, security force members, and suspected ISIS-Mozambique militants have been killed since the terrorist group began its violent extremist insurgency.”

The media note further added: “The group was responsible for orchestrating a series of large scale and sophisticated attacks resulting in the capture of the strategic port of Mocimboa da Praia, Cabo Delgado Province. ISIS-Mozambique’s attacks have caused the displacement of nearly 670,000 persons within northern Mozambique.”

ISIS had in April 2019 announced the launching of the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) aimed at promoting the presence of ISIS in parts of Africa.