Hundreds from the largest Somali population in the United States demonstrated over a bank's decision to stop handling money transfers that they say relatives in their famine-stricken homeland need to survive. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 and has no banking system, and Somalis use money-transfer businesses called hawalas to send earnings home.
But many big banks have stopped handling the transfers, saying US requirements to crack down on terror financing are too complex and not worth the risk. Friday's rally came a day after 15 hawalas in Minnesota stopped accepting wire transfers because the bank that handles the majority of the transactions, Sunrise Community Banks, planned to close their accounts, citing similar concerns.
"I don't know what to do," said Abdirahim Hersi, 27, who sends $500 every month to his mother, daughter and siblings in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, near the Somali border. He normally sends the money at the start of each month, so money he sent in early December is running out.
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