The nationwide fundraising campaign, ordered by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, received a good response from Saudis and expatriates.

Meanwhile, a delegation sent by the Islamic Development Bank to Somalia to supervise distribution of the bank’s relief supplies among famine victims with the cooperation of international organizations has returned after completing its mission.

IDB has offered relief assistance worth $1.2 million for the famine and drought victims, the bank said, adding that it would distribute more relief supplies worth $1 million after Eid Al-Fitr. During its second mission, IDB will distribute supplies among women, children and other victims in six provinces south of Somalia. The bank delegation supervised distribution of emergency aid among famine victims along the Somali-Kenyan border, where 350,000 Somali refugees are living in three camps.

“We distributed baby milk, sugar, rice and flour among the victims in the form of food baskets,” an official statement said, adding that the bank’s relief work benefited more than 33,000 people.

Adnan Khalil Basha, secretary-general of the International Islamic Relief Organization Saudi Arabia, said his organization had carried out 25 relief campaigns for Somalis in the past, spending a total of nearly SR180 million. These campaigns, he said, benefited more than 3.98 million Somalis.

In 1987 and 1988, IIROSA gave SR3 million to support the Somalis. “We also spent SR10 million to distribute relief supplies among Somali refugees in Ogaden, Ethiopia,” he added.

In a related development, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) said it distributed drinking water among the drought-hit areas of Somalia. WAMY cited a UN report saying Somalia has the world’s highest malnutrition rates.

There are about 2 million Somali children suffering from malnutrition.