Published On: Sun, Jan 15th, 2012

Somali Minnesotans Close Wells Fargo Bank Accounts + VIDEO

More than 100 members of the Somali community in Minnesota gathered at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in midtown Minneapolis on January 13, drawing attention to an increasingly dire situation facing their loved ones.

Following a brief rally in front of the branch, a number of Somali Americans in attendance entered the branch and closed their bank accounts.

Organized by Somali community activists with support from SEIU Local 26 and Minnesotans for a Fair Economy, the action drew news coverage from CBS Minnesota (WCCO), the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and the Washington Post via the Associated Press.

Since late December, Somali Americans living in Minnesota have been unable to send financial support — a much-needed lifeline — to their loved ones living in East Africa. At that time, a small community bank stopped working with Hawalas, the community-based financial institutions that are the only practical method to transfer funds to famine-stricken Somalia.

Wells Fargo is one of the largest banks serving the Somali community in Minnesota and was one of the first banks to stop working with Hawalas in the mid-2000s. Faced with an opportunity to take on a leadership role and provide assistance, Wells Fargo has thus far not been willing to work with the community and their unique financial needs.

As a result, hundreds of Somali Americans gathered on January 13 in front of the Wells Fargo branch to once again ask for a meeting to discuss the situation. Not being granted a meeting at that time, many in the crowd chose to close their accounts until the situation is finally resolved and Wells Fargo assists the community in their time of need.

Sadik Warfa of Minneapolis is a Somali community activist. “This is a crisis affecting our families and we need a resolution as soon as possible,” Warfa said. “Wells Fargo has the opportunity to take a leadership role in solving a humanitarian crisis and we have come here today to ask them to do just that. For nearly a month now, a lifeline for millions of people has been temporarily severed, placing those lives in jeopardy. We cannot wait any longer, this must be resolved today in order to save lives.”

Ismael Farah of Minneapolis has a sick mother in Somalia. He sends about $200 a month to her to pay for medical expenses. As of today, he has been unable to send anything to continue her care and she has been unable to purchase the medications she needs. “My family members keep calling me,” Farah said. “I don’t know what to do, I feel so helpless. There has to be a way to solve these problems. We need Wells Fargo and other banks to help us. Without their help our families will continue to suffer.”

Shukri Hassan of Minneapolis works hard in order to support her family, both here in Minnesota and in Somalia. “Without the assistance I provide, my family in Somalia is unable to makes ends meet,” Ali said. “Today I join with my Somali brothers and sisters in asking Wells Fargo to work with us and do the right thing to stop the suffering.”

Abdirahman Muse is a community activist who signed a letter on behalf of the Somali community which was sent to Wells Fargo executives earlier this week. Muse sends money back to his family in Somalia as well. “Many members of our community, who work hard to support families here and in their home country, have been loyal Wells Fargo customers for years,” Muse wrote in the letter. “Many were not even aware that you had closed the accounts that allowed money to reach their relatives because another bank provided the service. Now that this (much smaller) bank is no longer available, a humanitarian crisis has resulted.”

The text of Muse’s letter is included below.

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January 11, 2012

David Kvamme
Chief Executive Officer
Wells Fargo Minnesota
90 South Seventh Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Sent via Facsimile

Dear Mr. Kvamme –

For the past several weeks, members of the Minnesota Somali community have attempted to find solutions to an ongoing crisis facing our families. As you may be aware, we currently are unable to transfer funds to our loved ones in Somalia, greatly jeopardizing their health and safety.

In late December the remaining financial institution willing to work with us in wiring funds to Somali through Hawalas, the community-based financial institutions that are the only practical methods to transfer funds to Eastern Africa stopped performing the transactions. The decision by Sunrise Community Banks and their subsidiary, Franklin Bank, was devastating to us. It is our strong desire to engage in a dialogue with you, utilizing your significant resources in the Minnesota banking community to find a way in which to send funds to our loved ones.

Many members of our community, who work hard to support families here and in their home country, have been loyal Wells Fargo customers for years and were not even aware that you had closed the accounts that allowed money to reach their relatives because another bank provided the service. Now that this (much smaller) bank is no longer available a humanitarian crisis has resulted.

Last Thursday, a number of us visited your branch at 2600 East Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis to close our bank accounts. In doing so, our hope was that leadership within Wells Fargo would realize the urgent and serious nature of this situation. We were pleased that Wells Fargo representatives suggested a possible meeting with us to discuss finding a solution to this crisis.

Please contact me at your earliest convenience to schedule a meeting with representatives of our community. As each day passes, more and more lives are placed at risk.

My full contact information can be found below. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Abdirahman Muse
Community Activist
[contact information redacted for publication of letter]

Cc: Jon Campbell, Head of Social Responsibility, Wells Fargo Minnesota
John Stumpf, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wells Fargo N.A.


About the Author

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There have been no elections in Somalia since 1967 and there won’t be any this year either. But the country has a new parliament (appointed on the advice of clan elders) who have elected a new president, and the new government actually now controls a significant part of the country. The world’s only fully “failed state” may finally be starting to return to normality.A failed state is a horrendous thing: no government, no army, no police, no courts, no law, just bands of armed men taking what they want. Somalia has been like that for more than 20 years, but now there is hope. So much hope that last month the United Nations Security Council partially lifted its embargo on arms sales to Somalia in order to let the new Somali government buy arms, and last week the U.S. government followed suit.The new government replaces the “Transitional Federal Government”, another unelected body that had enjoyed the support of the UN and the African Union for eight pointless years. Then last year a World Bank report demonstrated the sheer scale of its corruption: seven out of every ten dollars of foreign aid vanished into the pockets of TFG officials before reaching the state’s coffers.Fully a quarter of the “national budget” was being absorbed by the offices of the president, the vice-president and the speaker of parliament. The fact that after all that the TFG still only controlled about one square kilometre (less than one square mile) of Mogadishu, the capital, while the rest of the shattered city was run by the Islamist al-Shabaab militia, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, also contributed to the international disillusionment.That tiny patch of ground, moreover, was being defended not by Somali troops but by thousands of Ugandan and Burundian soldiers of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Unisom). More than 500 of them had lost their lives defending the useless TFG, and the foreign donors were losing faith in the mission. But the Unisom soldiers did achieve one major thing: they fought al-Shabaab to a standstill in Mogadishu.In August 2011 the Islamist militia pulled its troops out of the capital. That created an opening, and the international community seized it. It ruthlessly initiated a process designed to push the TFG aside: Somali clan elders were asked to nominate members for a new 250-seat parliament, which was then asked to vote for a new president and government.It was obviously impossible to hold a free election in a country much of which was still under al-Shabaab’s control, but this process also had the advantage that it allowed the foreigners to shape the result. The corrupt officials who had run the old TFG all re-applied for their old jobs, but none of them succeeded.The new president who emerged from this process, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, is a former academic and human rights worker who only entered politics in 2011. No whiff of corruption clings to him, and he has worked tirelessly to bring about national reconciliation. And he has the wind at his back: just after he was chosen last September, a Kenyan force evicted al-Shebaab from Somalia’s second city, Kismayo.That still leaves about 95 percent of the country’s territory and three-quarters of its population beyond the government’s direct control. Al-Shabaab still rules in most rural parts of the country, and Ethiopian troops and their militia allies control much of the western border areas. Pirates with a lot of guns and money effectively dominate much of the north.One whole chunk of the country, calling itself Somaliland, has declared its independence (and runs its affairs much more peacefully and efficiently than any other part of Somalia). No other country recognizes its independence at the moment, but it used to be a British colony, quite separate from Italian-ruled Somalia, and in principle it can make exactly the same case for independence as Eritrea did when it broke away from Ethiopia.The worst problem facing President Mohamud is the venal and cunning politicians who have exploited the clan loyalties that pervade every aspect of Somali life to carve out their own little empires. Some are frankly and unashamedly warlords; others, including all the senior officials in the defunct TFG, masquerade as national politicians but work for their own interests.They have not gone away, nor have the clan rivalries that kept the fighting going for 21 years. Drawing up the rules and sharing out the power for a new federal Somalia (none of which has yet been decided) will give them plenty of opportunities to make trouble for the new president and regain their former power. Mohamud definitely has his work cut out for him.Nevertheless, he has strong UN and African Union support, and he now has a chance to create a spreading zone of peace in the country and start rebuilding national institutions. So last week the United States declared that it was now willing to provide military aid, including arms exports, to Somalia. Weirdly, that actually means that thing are looking up in the world’s only failed state.Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.