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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Somalis caught off guard when more than a dozen Minnesota businesses stopped accepting wire transfers said Friday they were scrambling to find a way to get money to relatives in East Africa and options mentioned by the U.S. Treasury weren't realistic.

Somalis in the U.S. use the businesses, known as hawalas, to send money to relatives in the famine-stricken nation and nearby refugee camps because Somalia hasn't had a functioning government since 1991 and has no banking system.

But 15 Minnesota hawalas stopped accepting wire transfers Thursday because the bank that handles the majority of the transactions planned to close their accounts Friday. Minnesota-based Sunrise Community Banks has said it fears unintentionally violating complex regulations designed to combat terror financing.

Abdirahim Hersi, 27, of Minneapolis, was among the Somalis who thought they could still send money Friday. He went to a money service business with the money in hand and was surprised to find the transfers had already stopped.

"I don't know what to do," said Hersi, 27, who sends $500 every month to his mother, daughter and siblings in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, near the Somali border. He usually sends the money at the start of each month, so his December transfer is running out. "I'm confused. I talked to my mother and she's also confused. ... I'm really sad."

He and hundreds of other Somalis gathered to protest in a park, many holding signs with pictures of hungry children and messages such as "I am starving -- banks blocked transmitting money to me" and "Banks block me from feeding my family."

The U.S. Treasury said there are other legitimate and transparent ways for Somalis to send money home. They include setting up accounts with other U.S. banks or sending money through other money transmitters or U.S.-based banks to clearinghouses or hubs in Dubai, which arrange for payouts in Somalia.

Another option, it said, is that Somalis could declare the money and legally ship cash or money orders to those same hubs for payout in Somalia.

Minnesota has one of the largest Somali populations in the U.S., and residents there said those options weren't practical.

Abdulaziz Sugule, former chairman of the Somali Money Services Business and now a consultant on the issue, said sending cash would be even more risky than wire transfers, as it would be tough to document and  might not reach its intended destination. People handling the cash risked being robbed or killed, he said.

Going through multiple money service businesses, such as one in the U.S. and then one in Dubai, adds layers of cost and time to each transaction, he added.

Sunrise Community Banks' decision to stop the transactions came weeks after two Minnesota women were convicted in October of conspiracy to provide support to al-Shabab, a group at the center of violence in Somalia and one the U.S. says is tied to al-Qaida. Evidence at their trial showed the women used the hawalas to send money to the terror group.

The bank said Friday it would consider an extension of the service if it received some sort of way to minimize its risk. No solution was reached at a meeting Friday with Somali community leaders, money-service business owners and government officials.

U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones said a waiver isn't possible.

"The Department of Justice doesn't give anyone a free pass right up front for possible future criminal activity," Jones said. "Federal prosecutors don't give waivers."

Somalis at Friday's rally were trying to come up with their own solutions. Samatilis Haille, who lives in Washington, D.C., but was visiting friends and family in Minneapolis, said he was thinking about using Western Union (News - Alert) to send money to Nairobi and asking a friend there to pick up the money and send it on to Somalia through a hawala.

But he said that plan has its own risks: He's worried if his friend learns how much money he sends back, his friend will ask for more. And, he said, he's unsure if his friend, who is a refugee, has the identification required to pick up the money.

Kamal Hassan, of Edina, said he has been sending almost half of his income to family members in the Dadaab refugee camp, as well as family inside Somalia. But without the hawalas, he can't think of a way to get it there.

"I blame al-Shabab. Because it is the terrorists' fault," he said. "But the thing is, is this the best way to deal with it?"

He said if the U.S. government does not provide a waiver, members of al-Shabab will seize on this as a way to justify their hatred of the U.S. "They will take advantage of this kind of grievance," he said.

Somalis in Minnesota who depend on a key bank to send money to loved ones in Africa are breathing easier after the bank delayed plans to drop the service.

St. Paul-based Sunrise Community Banks works with money-transfer businesses known as hawalas to handle millions of dollars in remittances. But bank officials said they worried that they might violate government rules intended to clamp down on terror financing.

A spokesman for the Somali American Moneywiring Association said Sunrise told hawala operators Friday that it will delay its plans by two weeks.

The spokesman, Aden Hassan, said it's a big relief but may be just temporary.

Sunrise has said it hopes it can get a waiver from federal officials.

The bank said it would close its accounts with the Somali money-transfer businesses after realizing it was at risk and could not prevent funds from winding up in terrorists' hands.

Without Sunrise, many hawalas said they would close because they can't execute transactions on their own. The shutdowns would leave potentially tens of thousands of Somalis in Minnesota - home to the largest Somali population in the United States - searching for other ways to get money to families and friends in a country racked by war and famine.

"It will touch every community member," said Dahir Jibreel, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center. "Everybody is scared. Everybody is worried. And they don't know what will come."

SUNRISE FILLED GAP

Somaliahas not had a functioning government since 1991 and has no banking system. The U.S. Treasury estimates Somalis in this country send $100 million back home each year. With no financial institutions in Somalia, they use hawalas, which require little paperwork and reach even the smallest towns.

But the hawalas need banks to do the wiring for them, Hassan said.

Many big banks stopped the transfers in recent years, saying they lacked the staffing to keep up with complex rules issued in 2005 to crack down on terrorism financing. Banks faced huge penalties for violations, and many said it wasn't worth the risk.

Sunrise Community Banks and its branches, which operate under different names, stepped in to fill the gap.

But a recent terrorism financing trial in Minnesota led Sunrise to reconsider. In that case, two Rochester women were convicted in October of conspiracy to provide support to al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked militia trying to create an Islamic state in Somalia.

Evidence showed the women, who claimed they were sending money to charity, used the hawalas to send more than $8,600 to al-Shabaab, which the U.S. State Department designated a foreign terrorist organization in February 2008.

Sunrise chief executive David Reiling said the bank wasn't involved in that case but realized it was vulnerable. Reiling said his bank wants to continue wiring money to Somalia but has to find a way to do it that removes its risk.

"The sheer magnitude of the human need, it weighs very heavily on my shoulders," Reiling said. "Yes, we have a banking issue and we all want to ensure that money does not get into the wrong hands - I think it's up to all of us to try to find a solution."

GREATER SCRUTINY

According to trial testimony, the hawalas check the recipients' names against the State Department's computerized list of terrorists. Most of the business records are computerized, so the names are automatically checked before the transaction can be completed.

One issue at the Minnesota trial was that defendant Amina Ali, sometimes at the direction of her al-Shabaab contacts in Somalia, had the people she enlisted to send money use fictitious names for the recipient as a way to bypass the computerized checks.

Reiling has met with representatives of Minnesota's congressional delegation to discuss remedies, including a possible waiver for banks.

Determining the scope of the problem is difficult. Hassan's association represents 14 money-wiring services with locations in Minnesota and elsewhere. He also manages Kaah Express, a Minnesota-based hawala with locations in six other states. All of the Kaah Express locations route their money through Sunrise, in Minnesota, and all might have to close, he said.

Hassan said most hawalas in Minnesota have accounts with branches of Sunrise Community Banks, and most risk closure. One or two smaller hawalas have arrangements with small banks, he said, but they also fear they could lose their accounts at any moment.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., has written to the State and Treasury departments asking officials to tell Minnesotans about other options. Franken spokeswoman Alexandra Fetissoff said those agencies believe there are still ways for Minnesotans to use banks to send money to Somalia.

The State Department did not return a call seeking comment, and the U.S. Treasury said money transmitters have indicated they have accounts with other banks.

The hawala system has been under scrutiny since 2001. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, several money-transfer businesses were closed because of security concerns, though most later reopened. The hawalas also feared closure years later when the major banks got out of the business.

Jibreel said that if he can no longer send money directly to Somalia, he'll have to find another way to get money to his mother, who lives in central Somalia. He said she is in her 80s and in frail health, and depends on the $100 or more he sends each month to help her pay for medical bills and food.

Jibreel said he could send money to a bank in Kenya or another country, ask a third person to pick it up, then have it re-sent from there to an agent in his mother's small town. The process would cost more and take longer, he said.

"That's the only money she gets," he said. "If she cannot get that, probably she will starve to death."

Pioneer Press staff writer David Hanners contributed to this report.

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