Turkey sends 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Somalia

A ship loaded with 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid has set sail for Somalia, the Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate Tuesday said in a statement. The statement said the ship, carrying humanitarian aid worth 16 million TL (about 10 million U.S. dollars), left the Mersin Port in southern Turkey for Somalia. Turkey initiated a country-wide aid campaign to help Somalia. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Mogadishu and several refugee camps in the country, pledging more aid in cash and infrastructure. Turkey has so far sent 11 planes and eight ships of humanitarian relief to famine-stricken Somalia. Somalia is currently facing one of the worst droughts in 60 years, whose epicenter lies on the three-way border shared by Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, a nomadic region where families heavily depend on livestock. Tens of thousands of people have so far been displaced due to the situation in the region.