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Erdoğan was speaking at a joint news conference with Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed during a visit to Mogadishu. He arrived in Somalia's capital on Friday for a visit aimed at drawing international attention to the famine sweeping across the Horn of Africa.
Erdoğan, accompanied by his family and five cabinet ministers, has in past days appealed for more food aid for the drought-hit nation and lashed out at wealthy Western nations for not doing more.
On Friday, he described the tragedy he saw in Mogadishu as “unprecedented,” explaining how he witnessed a child from a refugee camp he visited earlier in the day dying of hunger.
"This tragedy here is a test of humanity, human values, modernity and modern values. We're here to tell the world this test should be passed successfully to prove that Western values are more than empty rhetoric," said Erdoğan.
While calling on the world's nations to reach out to Somalia, he also asserted that Turkey would act as if it is the only nation helping the famine-stricken country. Turkey will soon open an embassy in Mogadishu and take several measures to help Somalia improve its infrastructure, which include digging wells to improve water supply, building field hospitals, a highway between the Mogadishu airport and the city center, as well as facilities for waste management to clean up Mogadishu's rubbish-strewn streets, Erdoğan said. He said Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) will also build houses and schools in the famine-hit country.
“Do not lose your hope. Because our hearts are together with you,” he told the people of Somalia. Erdoğan also said the Turkish government was working on ways to resolve problems between the Al-Shabaab insurgents and the government of Somalia.
The withdrawal of most Islamist militants from their Mogadishu bases earlier in the month has effectively handed full control of the capital to the government for the first time since civil war broke out in 1991. However, Somali troops and African peacekeepers are still meeting pockets of rebel resistance in Mogadishu, highlighting the view of regional observers that the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab insurgents are far from defeated.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, one of the ministers accompanying Erdoğan, said there was no reason why Somalia cannot overcome the famine, calling for international assistance. “People should come here and fulfill their humanitarian responsibilities so that Somalia can get back on its feet,” Davutoğlu told reporters after a visit to a refugee camp set up by the Turkish Red Crescent Society (Kızılay) in Mogadishu together with Somalia's Deputy Prime Minister Said Korshel.
The foreign minister said he hoped the Turkish prime minister's visit would be a “signal rocket” that would open the way for more people to reach out to famine-stricken Somalia. Korshel thanked Erdoğan, saying his visit changed the perception that no Somalia is out of reach.
The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries pledged on Wednesday $350 million in aid to fight the famine which has left 3.7 million Somalis at risk of dying of hunger.
Erdoğan has said he hoped the OIC's efforts would jolt the consciences of those ignoring the unravelling humanitarian emergency. A pious Muslim, he has called the disaster a "litmus test" for all humanity.
Momentous visit
Erdoğan was welcomed by Somalia's president at the airport with a warm embrace. Security forces flooded Mogadishu's main streets where Turkish flags fluttered in the coastal breeze and posters adorned the walls of mortar-blasted buildings.
"Prime Minister Erdoğan's visit tells us the Turkish people are closer to us than any other Muslim nation on earth," said resident Abdirashid Ali Omar. "The Turkish people are here to share with us in our time of need. It is momentous."
Muslim Turkey, a rising political and economic power that straddles East and West, is far behind other emerging powers such as China, Brazil or India in the race for new markets in Africa.
But under Erdoğan's ruling AK Party government, Turkey has expanded commercial ties in Africa, as well as in the Middle East and Asia, and opened several new embassies in Africa.
The UN's World Food Programme said on Friday it was still unable to reach 2.2 million hungry people living in areas of southern Somalia controlled by al Shabaab, whose bloody campaign to topple the government has cost more than 20,000 lives.
Aid agencies say that while droughts are a natural phenomenon, this famine is largely down to conflict and bad governance.
"Droughts will happen. They always will, but they don't have to be disasters. They can be managed," Oxfam's Philippa Crosland-Taylor said in neighboring Kenya.
Turkish aid to Somalia
Turkish state and non-governmental organizations are being mobilized to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to Somalia. Five tons of donations, worth of about TL 7 million, were shipped to Somalia from an İstanbul port by the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate. The ship is expected to reach the hunger-hit country in 11 days.
BİM, a leading discount retail chain, is among the contributors to charities raising aid for Somalia, with a generous donation of TL 1 million to a campaign initiated by the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate. BİM employees have also started their own charity campaign. Issuing a statement, BİM CFO Haluk Dortluoğlu said the African nation is experiencing a disaster that no human being can ignore. “Millions of people are in the grip of famine and tens of thousands are facing death due to hunger. We hope Somalia will overcome this crisis soon,” he said.
Mustafa Ali Şişman, head of the Ankara Private City Bus Owners Chamber, announced that the revenue earned by 200 buses on Thursday will be sent to Somalia via a campaign launched by Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate.
An 11-truck convoy carrying aid collected by Kimse Yok Mu departed from Ankara on Thursday. The aid will be shipped from the Port of Mersin on Monday. A ceremony was held before the trucks hit the road in Ankara. Speaking at the event, Kimse Yok Mu Chairman Ünal Öztürk said the situation in Somalia is heartbreaking and thanked all contributors. While noting that several other convoys had also departed from different provinces, Öztürk said the aid will head to Mogadishu collectively. Konya Şeker A.Ş. (Konya Sugar) has donated 100 tons of sugar, worth TL 219,904, to support relief efforts in Somalia. The company sent the sugar via Kimse Yok Mu, in four trucks that departed Konya on Thursday.
Osmaniye Health Workers Foundation (OSAD) President Mehmet Gül has said a group of doctors from the foundation will soon be heading to Somalia to offer health services. Speaking at an iftar, or fast-breaking dinner, event on Thursday night, Gül called for others to also support activities to help the starving people in the Horn of Africa. “In response to the tragedy in Somalia, we decided to step in by sending doctors to the region. This is our debt to humanity,” he said.
The Laleli Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (LASİAD) also donated TL 300,000 for aid efforts in Somalia. Head of the association Gıyasettin Eyyüpkoca presented their donation to Turkish Red Crescent head Burhan Külünk on Friday.
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