Turkey distributes humanitarian aid in Somalia

The Turkish government along with Turkish company Albayrak have on Sunday distributed food aid in Taredisho village in the outskirts of Somali capital Mogadishu.

Hundreds of people in Taredisho IDP camps received food aid including rice, oil, water, dates, beans, medical drugs and cash.

Turkish ambassador to Somalia Olgan Bekar said in the village that the Turkish government and Turkish companies in Somalia and in Turkey were helping Somalis deal with the drought and were providing humanitarian aid.

“The Turkish government, companies and the people of Turkey are now working very hard to avert the drought in Somalia as we did during 2011’s famine. Large amounts of humanitarian assistance including food and medicine will arrive soon in Somalia by air and sea,” Bekar said.

In a statement issued, the Turkish mission in Somalia said that the Albayrak company donated food, drugs and cash support to the Drought Committee and the Somali people.

The Drought and Disaster Management Committee of Somalia thanked the Turkish government for its support to thedrought hit Horn of Africa country.

“People of Somalia thank the Turkish government and its people who stand by their brothers in Somalia every day,” Sheikh Barod Gurhan, a member of the Somali Drought and Disaster Management Committee said after the aid distribution.

The Turkish government and its people will forever be the heroes of Somalia, he added.

Albayrak company has already donated $100,000 for the drought in Somalia.

Meanwhile, the Drought Committee has received on Sunday over 58 tons of humanitarian aid from Jordan and Djibouti as well.

The drought hit 11 out of 18 Somali regions. Bay is the region mostly affected by the drought where at least 110 people died from hunger and cholera outbreak last month.

The Turkish government played a huge role in overcoming the famine of 2011 in Somalia which killed thousands of people including children.