In Africa's shadow: Funding battles for Hezbollah and Israel

Hezbollah and Israel are raising money in Africa to fund battles in Lebanon. Hezbollah receives funds from Lebanese people who reside in large numbers in West African countries, while Israel profits from the trade of African diamonds.

The number of Lebanese living in Africa, mainly in its western region, is estimated at least a quarter of a million. By African standards, they are considered wealthy, and many are very affluent individuals.

Hezbollah, largely sponsored by Iran, conducts its war with Israel partly due to donations from Lebanese scattered across Africa. The contributions are officially earmarked for orphanages, clinics, or organizing summer camps for orphans run by this 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 uses both zakat and donations for acquiring weapons and assisting in training Palestinians.

According to the US State Department, this organization also derives income from drug trafficking, smuggling, and large-scale money laundering.

Over the past decade, Americans have repeatedly accused some African Lebanese of being involved in raising money for Hezbollah. Sanctions were imposed on many Lebanese citizens in Gambia, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast.

West Africa has gained a notorious reputation as Hezbollah's money laundering hub. This is facilitated by the widespread use of cash and informal transfers conducted through friends and family rather than banks. In many African countries, these transfers are beyond any control. In Liberia, where Lebanese are the largest ethnic minority, a formal declaration of money brought into or taken out of the airport was introduced only in September of this year.

According to the US Treasury Department, the main hub for money transfers in Africa is Ivory Coast, where the Lebanese diaspora is considered the largest, with an estimated population of about 100,000 people.

Israel also funds the war in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon with resources from Africa. This is mainly through African diamonds, which reach global markets after being polished in Israel. Hostile stances towards Israel from South Africa and Namibia do not interfere in the trade.

Both countries call for an international boycott of Israel, and both sell diamonds to it without scruple. 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, mainly diamonds, and imported goods worth 3.8 million dollars from Israel, primarily 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 brought more than 100 billion dollars to the Israeli economy.

Media hostile to Israel, especially Arab and Turkish, 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 is that Israel is one of the five largest exporters of polished diamonds in the world despite having no diamond resources of its own.