Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi
Friday, May 27, 2011
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Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has expressed Iran's readiness to help Somalia resolve the ongoing crisis in the Horn of Africa country. At a Friday meeting with his Somali counterpart on the sidelines of the 16th ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on the island of Bali in Indonesia, Salehi announced Iran's readiness to use all capacities to help end bloodshed in Somalia and alleviate the suffering of the Muslim nation.
Somali State Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Ali Hamud, for his part, explained the latest developments in the country and hailed Iran's humanitarian aid as well as its efforts to help resolve the crisis in the war-ravaged country.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, the lawless state has been embroiled in a bitter civil war for years.
Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people in the world.
An estimated 1.4 million Somalis are displaced within the country while another 680,000 live as refugees in neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR reported in April that the number of Somali refugees arriving in neighboring countries during the first quarter of 2011 has more than doubled compared to the same period in 2010.
Source: PressTV