The Empire of Mines and Skulls: How Hezbollah Filled Its Coffers with Blood Diamonds
The reality of the Hezbollah militia’s financial empire in West Africa is coming to light before African and international audiences. Its exposure is revealing the workings of complex networks in which money and blood intertwine, alongside the roles of influential political figures in facilitating Hezbollah’s foothold across West Africa, particularly in Sierra Leone.
As the militia seeks new financial resources and alternatives to supply routes disrupted by significant changes in Damascus and Beirut, strategic and security sources identify Sierra Leone as an important hub in Hezbollah’s complex financial network. The country brings together Lebanese expatriate communities, the natural resources trade and alternative financing channels.
“Blood Diamonds”
Historical and political sources tracing the relationship between Sierra Leone and Hezbollah agree that Lebanese migration to Africa, which dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century, played a pivotal role in establishing deep economic and social ties. Those connections soon turned Sierra Leone into a major arena of influence for Hezbollah and the Amal Movement as they sought control over the illicit diamond trade.
Conflict and the conditions surrounding Sierra Leone’s civil war, from 1991 to 2002, facilitated the dominance of Hezbollah-linked networks over the diamond trade, strengthening their influence within local Shia communities.
Security sources operating on the ground in Sierra Leone say the militia now uses the trade in “blood diamonds” as a key means of laundering and transferring money to serve its interests. These diamonds are extracted in conflict zones under the coercive control of local criminal gangs that exploit children, women and vulnerable people.
According to the sources, prominent figures involved in these activities include Nazem Said Ahmad, who allegedly used diamond trading networks to launder money and finance the militia. Other networks in Congo and several African countries are reportedly involved in the same criminal practices.
How the Networks Operate
Specialist sources and research centres familiar with the issue say Hezbollah’s presence in Africa is intended to secure alternative, independent funding sources to counter international sanctions imposed on the group and its main financial backer, Tehran. This comes amid dwindling resources and a decline in both the volume and range of donations from domestic and overseas sources.
The sources indicate that the militia has become involved in drug trafficking and money laundering networks in countries such as Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Côte d’Ivoire, exploiting security gaps and the absence of effective oversight.
More serious still, they say, is the development of complex networks and the recruitment of local sympathisers, who are connected with militia-linked operatives to facilitate arms procurement and the smuggling of military equipment between countries including Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia and Sierra Leone and Lebanon, in both directions.
These activities allegedly also involve investment companies used as fronts to conceal illicit proceeds behind apparently legitimate businesses, including import-export operations, real estate and food trading. Traditional informal money transfer networks, known as hawala, and the physical smuggling of cash are also reportedly used to evade financial sanctions targeting Iranian and Hezbollah funding networks.
Nabih Berri, the “Trump Card”
Within this broader picture, Lebanese Parliament Speaker and Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri emerges as a central figure in the system described.
According to research reports on the subject, the history of Lebanese communities in West Africa cannot be separated from the families and individuals who amassed substantial fortunes through the shadow economy and the natural resources trade. The reports single out Berri, who was born in Sierra Leone in 1938 to a Lebanese family originally from Tibnine.
They add that the presence of the Berri family and the founding generation of expatriates extended beyond ordinary community ties to encompass complex networks of commercial interests, mining companies and monopolistic control of the diamond sector. For decades, that sector was the principal financial lifeline of what might be termed the “African Shia diaspora”.
The sources say Nabih Berri’s father, Mustafa Berri, was a prominent expatriate involved in Sierra Leone’s diamond trade. It was within this environment that Berri reportedly built an extensive network of alliances with leading expatriate financiers and businesspeople, including the late influential businessman Jamil Said Mohamed and other finance and timber magnates who controlled key sectors of Sierra Leone’s economy.
Despite historical differences between the organisational generations of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah, cross-border networks of interests in Africa provided a strategic point of convergence.
Money accumulated by businesspeople associated with Lebanon’s Shia political milieu in Sierra Leone and other West African countries, including Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, reportedly made a significant contribution to financing the infrastructure, civilian institutions and economic networks the militia needs to mobilise support, at least within its own religious community.
As the Amal Movement rose and consolidated its political influence in Lebanon, complex political and economic partnerships reportedly emerged between its traditional leaders and Hezbollah’s networks. Their interests converged around control of key commercial sectors and banking and real estate activities in Lebanon, financed directly by funds from the African diaspora.
These networks and partnerships reportedly remain active, providing Hezbollah with alternative sources of funding and arms supplies, even as their role has diminished in scope and scale.
Ultimately, as Hezbollah’s financial networks in Africa face unprecedented intelligence operations and tighter international and domestic scrutiny, diaspora networks in West Africa and Sierra Leone remain under international security surveillance. This scrutiny comes particularly in the wake of the assassination of senior political and military leaders and the group’s reduced ability to move money through traditional channels such as Beirut airport.
The intersection of historical, political and financial interests linking prominent figures in Lebanon with African financial networks remains one of the most complex issues in tracing transcontinental funding channels.
