Turkey’s state-run aid agency on Thursday dispensed food items to 550 displaced families on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency distributed food packages containing rice, cooking oil, flour and dates at a makeshift camp in the town of Legetafo, which in recent years has taken in people displaced by ethnic conflicts in the city of Jijiga, located in Ethiopias Somali local state.
Nebiba Seraj, Legetafos mayor, stated that TIKA has been helping “our displaced compatriots over the past years”.”The assistance is more than food. It represents the close relationship among Ethiopia and Turkey,” she added. The aid agency, which has been supplying humanitarian help in the Horn of Africa nation and renovated the ancient Al Nejashi Mosque in the north of the country, on Wednesday also gave food to widows and cancer patients.
Cengiz Polat, TIKAs country director, instructed Anadolu Agency that it supplied food assistance to 270 widows and 50 cancer patients in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia “is a special country for Turkey and Muslims all over the world as it hosted Prophet Muhammads first followers who fled from the persecution of the ruling tribe of Mecca,” he stated, including that the first caller to prayer or muezzin was Bilal al-Habashi, an Ethiopian.
TIKA and Turkey will continually assist Ethiopians who are now dealing with safety challenges, he said.
