NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Wailing women and the smell of death greeted South African church leaders on a mission yesterday to bring financial assistance – and hope – to some 54,000 Somalis who lost their homes and livelihoods when Asia’s deadly tsunami slammed into African shores.

The delegation led by Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town and Reverend Molefe Tsele, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, flew to Somalia’s northeastern Hafun island – the part of Somalia hardest hit by the tsunami. They urged world leaders to rally to Africa’s side in the same way that they have responded to the crisis in Asia.

“We think that this marginalisation of the suffering of the people of Somalia needs to be corrected,” Tsele said during a stopover in Nairobi yesterday. “We need to bring to our (TV) screens the pain of the people of Hafun.”

Some 298 people were killed and many others are missing after violent waves hammered the Somali coast on December 26. Most of the victims are from the Indian Ocean coastline of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, including Hafun.

The church leaders visited a devastated fishing community, which lost nets, boats, personal belongings and livelihoods.

Homes were raised to the ground, the mosque was in ruins, and the smell of bodies was everywhere, they said.

“We met wailing women, who lost their loved ones and belongings,” Ndungane said. “Their cry is help us rebuild our lives, help us regain our dignity.”

On their way home, the delegation stopped in Kenya where they handed over a US$75,000 (euro57,857) cheque to the All Africa Conference of Churches for relief efforts in Somalia. But Ndungane said US$23 million (euro17.74 million) was needed to address the devastation.

Besides the immediate and urgent need for food, water, medicine and other supplies, Somalis need help coming to terms with their trauma, Ndungane said.

“The good news of course is that the people of Hafun are prepared for a new beginning,” he said. “But they can’t do it alone. They need our help and our prayers.”

The United States government has contributed US$50,000 (euro38,571.32) and UN agencies are also raising funds for Somalia.

Complicating relief efforts are the chaos and destruction of years of violence in Somalia. UN officials couldn’t even fly over parts of the Somali coastline to assess the damage because of the presence of large numbers of anti-aircraft guns owned by local warlords.

Somalia has had no central government since 1991, when opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. They then turned on each other, dividing the nation of seven million into a patchwork of clan-based fiefdoms.

A new government, formed after two years of complex negotiations between warlords, clan leaders and civil society representatives, is currently based in Kenya because it considers Somalia too unsafe.