Behind every terrorist attack is a financial network. For years, extremist groups such as Al-Shabaab, have exploited Somalia’s financial system to raise, move and hide funds. Tracking those flows is particularly complex in an economy where remittances account for roughly a quarter of GDP and daily life runs on mobile money. While these financial channels are essential to everyday life, they can also be exploited for illicit purposes.
Less than a decade ago, Somalia’s system for monitoring illicit financial flows was still taking shape. When IDLO began supporting Somalia’s Financial Reporting Center (FRC) in 2017, with support from the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, the institution was just one year old. Its reporting system and capacity to analyse suspicious financial activity were limited.
By the end of 2025, the FRC had become an operational financial intelligence unit, able to analyse financial information, identify suspicious activity and refer cases to law enforcement.
IDLO worked alongside the FRC throughout this transformation, helping strengthen the systems and expertise behind its work. This support included developing standard operating procedures, providing on-the-job mentorship for analysts, seconding experts to support prosecutors and improving coordination among the institutions responsible for bringing cases before the courts.
From 2017 to 2025, the number of institutions reporting financial transactions to the FRC grew from just 13 to 55, giving analysts a much broader picture of potentially illicit financial activity.
Financial intelligence can uncover suspicious transactions, but investigators, prosecutors and courts are needed to turn that intelligence into action. IDLO worked with the Attorney General’s Office to strengthen financial investigations and prosecutions, helping connect financial intelligence with cases. The results can now be seen in the courts.
In May 2024, Somalia secured its first-ever conviction for terrorism financing and money laundering before a civilian court. Between 2022 and 2025, the FRC referred 332 cases to law enforcement, while authorities froze 753 bank accounts and deactivated 2,477 mobile money accounts and 207 merchant accounts.
Over the same period, the Attorney General’s Office secured 15 money laundering and terrorist financing convictions, while approximately $968,442 was frozen and $374,076 in assets confiscated.
Somalia's experience shows how efforts to counter violent extremism can be powered by the rule of law.
Working across the justice chain, from financial intelligence to investigation, prosecution and adjudication. The result is a financial system that is harder for terrorist groups to exploit and safer for the families and businesses who rely on it every day.