Marchers Support Somalia

A group of Cambridge residents gathered on the steps of City Hall last night in a candlelight vigil to support the people of war-torn Somalia.

Approximately 60 people attended the city-sponsored event to raise public awareness about conditions of famine and disorder resulting from the increasingly violent civil war in the African nation.

Speakers included Robert L. Buchanan and Janet Green, both of Oxfam America, and Hussein A. Abby, a Somalian city employee and local activist for Somalian relief efforts.

Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72, who was scheduled to appear, was unable to attend, but Karen E. Routt, the mayor's chief of staff, was on hand as moderator.

"Imagine for one second what it would be like here in Cambridge if 40 percent of the people were starving to death," said Abby, the first speaker. "The tragedy here is that the international community has ignored the crisis in the embryonic stages."

Janet Green described her recent visit to Somalia. "I saw children sitting by the side of the road alone, with no parents," she said. "[The situation] is not gong to be fixed by technology alone."

Other speakers included Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah, a representative of MIT's African Association, Henry lrving of UNICEF, and Molly G. Ware '95 of the Phillip Brooks' House Hunger Action Committee.

Ware announced plans for a Harvard-wide fasting day, scheduled for November, which would raise campus awareness about the famine that threatens to claim two million lives in Somalia in the next few months.

All the speakers called for increased public commitment to doing more for the relief effort.

"This is a time when we all need to become friends of Somalia," said Buchanan. "We must contribute from our own pockets even though some of us are having difficult economic times right now."

After the speeches, performers sang a Somalian folk song and recited a poem in praise of the relief efforts, and candles were passed out to audience members. The speakers then took up a banner which read "Help the Starving People of Somalia" and led a procession from City Hall to Harvard Square.