Humanitarian relief efforts are conducted under difficult circumstances in the southern parts of Somalia due to the domestic turmoil in the region. In cooperation with the Zamzam Foundation, the IHH is taking relief to the troubled parts of Mogadishu. 

A nine-member aid team, with three members from being the IHH and six from the Zamzam Foundation, delivered food to Somalis in the country’s south where there is a severe hunger and people face risk of death every day. Murat Kavaktan, deputy chairman of the IHH who took part in the relief efforts in the region, said the people in the camp told the IHH aid workers that IHH is the only relief foundation in the world which has brought aid to the region. Kavaktan noted that the IHH had taken humanitarian aid to this region also before in cooperation with the Zamzam Foundation.

Most troubled part of the country is the south

Kavaktan underlined that real drought and hunger triggered by drought hit the southern parts of the country most heavily, adding that the people in the region want to make a new start thanks to the relief efforts.

“For instance, the Ala Yasir Camp is a very clean, orderly and a registered camp in that it cannot even be compared with the camps in Mogadishu. In addition, there is a 60-member-team working here for cleaning the area. There are WCs and bathrooms in the camp. There is also a tent school so that children can continue education,” he said.

Kavaktan also confirmed reports that some 1,600 families from the camp have been sent back to their villages after their villages received rainfall. This came as evidence that camp officials monitor the crisis-hit villages closely and send the refugee families back to their villages when the circumstances there improve. He also noted that the regional administration continues to provide food support to families who returned to their villages until they harvest their own crops.

The regional administration in the southern Somalia offered its thanks to Turkish people for a hospital, Arafat Hospital, the IHH had constructed in the area. In addition, the officials in the region told the IHH that there is need for more hospitals in other parts of the region and they are ready to facilitate the procedures for the IHH for it to construct new hospitals.