Local Somalis are calling on all San Diegans to help raise money for famine relief in Somalia.
The Somali Youth League of San Diego plans to hold a fund-raising banquet on Aug. 12. The money will be used to buy food packets to send to Somalia. Abdimalik Buul - who is chairman of the youth league - hopes San Diego residents and businesses are moved enough to help Somalia where children are dying daily from malnutrition and millions have been displaced.
"Words cannot express how bad they need our help," Buul said. "You will see children with their ribs poking out of their stomachs. The refugee camps … about 1,400 people arrive everyday. Only 200 are processed. That means 1,200 are sitting outside with no clothes, no food, no water nothing ... completely dying like flies outside."
The Somali terrorist group Al Shabab has forbidden Western aid agencies from operating in their territory, but Buul said the group is accepting help form Somalis in the West.
