The United Nations Security Council’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee amended 21 existing entries on its sanctions list on 18 August 2026.
The Committee, established pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015), did not announce 21 new designations. Instead, it revised information attached to existing listed persons and entities. The distinction matters for sanctions compliance teams because amendments to existing records can change the identifying information used to generate and resolve screening matches.
Updated list contains 252 individuals and 89 entities
The UN Security Council confirms that the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List currently contains 252 individuals and 89 entities. The list was last updated on 18 August 2026 and supersedes all previous versions.
The UN makes the list available in PDF, XML and HTML formats and states that further changes are made following relevant decisions of the Committee.
What the update means for sanctions screening
For financial institutions, virtual asset service providers, payment firms and other regulated businesses, amendments to existing sanctions records can be operationally significant even when no new person or entity is added. Changes to names, aliases, dates or places of birth, identification details, addresses and other identifying information can affect both new and previously cleared screening results.
Compliance teams should therefore ensure that sanctions-screening data providers have incorporated the 18 August UN update and consider whether revised identifiers generate new matches against existing customers, counterparties or other relevant records.
The update is a list-maintenance action by the UN sanctions committee rather than a new sanctions regime or a set of 21 new designations.
