On Friday, Somali authorities pleaded with U.S. officials to ease restrictions on wire transfers to the region after Sunrise Community Banks of Minnesota announced plans to halt the service. Due to the large number of Somalians living in that state, Sunrise handles many of these transactions. The U.S. views wire transfers to the Horn of Africa as risky because of terrorism concerns, yet thousands in famine-ravaged Somalia are dependent of them. Shannon Scribner, Oxfam America’s humanitarian policy manager, talks more about the situation.
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