A large Turkish delegation spent Monday in famine-hit Mogadishu assessing investment opportunities and delivering aid, a Somali government statement said.
The 213-member delegation comprised officials from a swathe of ministries ranging from urban planning to agriculture and the emergency management directorate, as well as the Turkish Red Cross.
The General Manager of Turkish Airlines, Temel Kotil, among the delegation, said his team delivered modern equipment to Aden Abdulle airport, and said the airline planned to launch flights to and from Mogadishu, making it the first international airline to operate scheduled flights to the city in two decades.
The visit came less than a month after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan toured Mogadishu, becoming the first major leader to visit the Somali capital in almost 20 years and calling the extreme drought ravaging the country "a problem for all humanity."
He said Turkey would fund infrastructure projects including restoring a hospital, building schools, drilling wells and rebuilding the road from Mogadishu airport to the city.
"A delegation of this size shows the Turkish government and people's solidarity with Somali people at this hour of need and that the promises of Turkish Prime Minister are being materialized," Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said Monday when he hosted a lunch for some of the delegates.
Somali Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Arab Isse Monday received 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid from Turkey, including tents, food, light machinery and five fully equipped ambulances.
