Bad finances leading to Daesh’s defeat in Libya

Daesh was defeated in the Libyan city of Sirte because of the group’s poor financing, a new report has revealed.

“Who pays for ISIS in Libya?”, released by Hate Speech International (HSI) at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI),  said the group’s poor financing and dependence on smuggling, looted goods, tax system, coerced donations and corruption has led to its demise in the Libyan city. Adding that groups like Daesh are only sustainable as long as they acquire “more territory to tax and plunder.”

Daesh’s main funding in Libya was reportedly attained from hijacking vehicles from the Central Bank of Libya in Sirte in November 2013 believing to contain $55 million. As many of the Daesh fighters in Libya began as anti-Qaddafi militiamen, the report added, saying they would have also received Libyan state salaries and obtained large catches of weapons and ammunition from the General National Congress (GNC). This would have been added to the start-up capital at Daesh’s disposal.

The report further warns that Daesh’s recent defeat in Sirte will force its commanders to escape into the Libyan Sahara with “large amounts of cash” and weaponry to regroup along “southern arms, drugs and human trafficking routes, embedding themselves within tribal and ethnic conflicts in the southern region.”

Funding the group receives or acquires is used to pay its fighters and administer its territories in Syria and Iraq.