Turkey's state-run aid agency distributed Friday food aid to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the town of Gelan on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa.
Gelan hosts more than 4,000 people who were displaced more than a year ago due to ethnic clashes in the town of Jijiga in the Somali regional state.
The food items distributed among 800 families by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) include rice, cooking oil, flour and dates. "We are pleased to be with you at this time of Ramadan," Yaprak Alp, the Turkish ambassador to Ethiopia, told displaced people at the camp, a large area filled with small corrugated iron houses.
Feria Abdi, a mother of three, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the aid would help them cope with the food shortage throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "We get a monthly 15 kilograms of grains per person, but we sell half of it to buy other necessities. So, food is always in short supply here," Abdi said. Mustafa Mohammed Yusuf, the community elder, thanked TİKA for making the donation. "We received the same donation from TİKA last year, and we are grateful for the help," he said. Mohammed Sheikh Ali, head of a family of five, told AA that the IDPs community also suffered from a shortage of blankets and mattresses.
TİKA is active in Ethiopia, providing both humanitarian and developmental support. The Turkish agency restored the ancient al Nejashi Mosque in the north of the country and renovated an early 20th-century Turkish Consulate in Harar in eastern Ethiopia, among other development and relief efforts.
