Money trails in Africa: Hezbollah funding and Israel's diamond deals
Hezbollah and Israel are raising money in Africa to fund conflicts in Lebanon. Hezbollah receives funds from Lebanese communities residing in West African countries, while Israel profits from the trade of African diamonds.
The number of Lebanese living in Africa, primarily in the western region, is estimated to be at least a quarter of a million. By African standards, they are considered affluent, and many are quite wealthy.
Hezbollah, largely sponsored by Iran, sustains its conflict with Israel in part through donations from Lebanese scattered across Africa. The contributions are officially designated for orphanages, clinics, and organizing summer camps for orphans run by the organization in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, recognized as a religious organization, also has access to zakat, an informal, annually paid obligatory tax by all Muslims, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), Hezbollah utilizes both zakat and donations for acquiring weapons and providing training to Palestinians.
According to the U.S. State Department, this organization also generates income from drug trafficking, smuggling, and large-scale money laundering.
In the past decade, Americans have repeatedly accused some African Lebanese of being involved in raising funds for Hezbollah. Sanctions have been imposed on many Lebanese citizens in Gambia, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast.
West Africa has gained a notorious reputation as a money laundering hub for Hezbollah. This is facilitated by the widespread use of cash and informal transfers through friends and family rather than banks. In many African countries, these transfers evade any formal control. In Liberia, where Lebanese are the largest ethnic minority, the obligation to formally declare money brought into or taken out of the airport was only introduced in September of this year.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the main hub for money transfers in Africa is the Ivory Coast, where the Lebanese diaspora is considered the largest, with an estimated population of about 100,000 people.
Israel buys African diamonds
Israel also funds its activities in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon with resources from Africa. This is primarily through African diamonds, which reach global markets after being polished in Israel. Hostile stances towards Israel from South Africa and Namibia do not impede the trade.
Both countries call for an international boycott of Israel, yet sell diamonds to it without hesitation. For Namibia, diamonds are the largest source of export revenue, accounting for at least 10% of GDP. In 2022, Namibia exported goods worth 59 million dollars to Israel annually, primarily diamonds, and imported goods worth 3.8 million dollars from Israel, mainly equipment for polishing them.
In the same year, South Africa sold diamonds worth over 93 million dollars to Israel. From 2010 to 2022, the export of polished diamonds is estimated to have contributed more than 100 billion dollars to the Israeli economy.
Media hostile to Israel, particularly Arab and Turkish outlets, suggest that the country, through networks of intermediaries, also acquires so-called blood or "conflict" diamonds from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are under embargo. An indirect proof of this claim is that Israel is one of the five largest exporters of polished diamonds in the world despite having no diamond resources of its own.
