WAMY said on Tuesday that it had sent a delegation to Mogadishu to supervise the distribution of relief supplies among the victims in cooperation with international agencies.

The delegation met with officials of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the World Doctors Trans-Continents initiative and the crisis management committee of the Somali government and discussed coordination of relief programs.

“Our delegation participated in the distribution of relief among refugees in Mogadishu,” said a statement issued by the Riyadh-based organization. “They also conducted medical tests on refugees and visited public hospitals in the city,” it added.

“Ever since the outbreak of famine in Somalia, WAMY had set up an emergency committee to provide relief for the famine victims in the country in coordination with our office in Mogadishu,” the statement said.

WAMY has so far sent 22 containers of relief supplies to Mogadishu through Djibouti. It also distributed drinking water among families especially in the Bay region, which has now been declared a famine-stricken area. “We also provided emergency assistance to 1,000 families in the Bay and Bakool regions,” it said.

Bay is the sixth region of Somalia to suffer from severe food shortages since the UN’s initial declaration of famine in the war-torn country in July that has left 4 million Somalis, or 53 percent of the country’s population, unable to meet their food needs.

WAMY also set up two centers in Mogadishu to provide food to thousands of mothers and children, the statement said. “Our office in Kenya distributed emergency aid among 6,600 refugees. We also contributed SR4 million for an OIC relief program for Somalia,” the organization said.

Last month Saudi Arabia launched a nationwide campaign to collect donations for Somali people. A two-day telethon organized by Saudi Arabian Television during Ramadan raised more than SR202 million in addition to hundreds of tons of food, medicines, medical appliances, tents and other supplies.

At present the Saudi government is transporting thousands of tons of relief supplies donated by citizens and foreign residents to affected Somalis by air and sea.

The Kingdom has already sent 24 planeloads of relief supplies to Somalis using Saudi Air Force cargo planes. Saad Al-Harithy, adviser to Prince Naif, second deputy premier and minister of interior and chairman of the relief committee, said the national fundraising campaign was still collecting donations in both cash and kind.

Interested people may transfer their donations to the unified account No. 6000 at NCB and IBAN SA43100020177777000104.