Turkish PM pays landmark visit to famine-hit Somalia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Mogadishu Friday for the first visit by a major leader in nearly two decades to witness the devastation wrought by a famine in the Somali capital. Somalia is the country worst affected in the Horn of Africa by a prolonged drought that has been officially declared a famine by the United Nations in five regions in the country, including Mogadishu itself. Erdogan, who is accompanied by four ministers, was to tour a camp for the displaced and a hospital in Mogadishu, where more than 100,000 people have fled to recently to seek relief from the drought. The visit follows Wednesday's meeting in Istanbul by members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who pledged to donate 350 million dollars to assist the drought- and famine-stricken Somalis. Passengers on a plane carrying a delegation accompanying Erdogan had a narrow escape when they landed at Mogadishu airport as the right wing of the aircraft scraped the runway, according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency. No one was injured from the delegation which includes business leaders, lawmakers, musicians and security guards, Anatolia said. Aid agencies have warned that the whole of southern Somalia could be hit by famine in the coming weeks. The UN's food monitoring unit has described Somalia as facing the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world and Africa's worst food security crisis since the country's 1991-1992 famine.