Wednesday May 24, 2017
The Turkish Red Crescent aid organization, Kizilay, has announced on Tuesday that it will send three ships carrying humanitarian aid to Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
The Turkish agency said in a statement that the aid will be sent during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to these countries which are struggling with famine, drought and civil war.
The three ships, each carrying one month worth of food for around three million people, will depart from Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Mersin during the Ramadan, said the statement without specifying exact departure date.
The president of Turkish Red Crescent, Kerem Kinik will visit the ships on May 25.
Earlier this month, Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yildiz said that Turkey’s annual humanitarian aid budget had risen from around $85 million a decade ago to $6 billion last year.
“According to 2015 data, our country became the most generous donor country in the world when the ratio of official humanitarian aid is considered according to national income,” Yildiz had said.