FM: Iran to Send $25mln Worth of Humanitarian Aids to Somalia

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced that Tehran plans to send $25mln worth of humanitarian aids to Somalia as the drought-ravaged North African country is sinking deeper into an all-out humanitarian crisis.
"The $25 million worth of goods will be sent for the famine-stricken Somalis," Salehi said on the sidelines of the Cabinet's meeting on Sunday.

The drought and the famine it has caused in the Horn of Africa nations have affected more than 11.8 million people across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Somalia is hardest-hit by what is described as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.

Meantime, Secretary General of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Zaher Rostami said his organization was ready to render aid to the famine-stricken people in Somalia.

In a meeting with the top Somali diplomat in Tehran Khalifa Moussa, he said that humanitarian aid packages prepared by the Red Crescent and the Iranian individuals will soon be dispatched to Somalia.

The two officials agreed that Iran's aid packages would be distributed among the famine-stricken people inside Somalia or on its joint border line with Kenya.

Rostami further announced that the society was also ready to dispatch medical staff and set up temporary hospitals in Somalia.