British broadcasting agency eulogizes Turkey's aid to Somalia

LONDON (A.A) - February 23, 2012 - The British BBC broadcasting agency appreciated on Wednesday Turkey's aid to Somalia just before London hosts an international conference on Somalia. BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding wrote an article which was aired on the agency's web-site in which he said Turkey did what none of countries had done for Somalia and Turkey's boots-on-the-ground approach was having something of a catalytic effect on the aid community. Harding said Somalia remained a notoriously hard place to help, and wrote, "but on a windswept hilltop along the coast a few miles south of the capital, Mogadishu, a giant, almost ludicrously neat, brand new tented camp for displaced families stands as a monument to what foreigners can achieve here with the right approach." The correspondent quoted deputy head of Turkish Red Crescent delegation to Somalia, Alper Kucuk, as saying that they had had no security problems in Somalia yet. "We have 2,100 tents for 12,000 people. Somalis treat us like their family and we are sure that anyone who has the willingness to do something for them will be very welcome," said Mr Kucuk. In his article, Harding wrote, "in the months since the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab, was finally pushed out of the city by African Union soldiers Turkey has emerged as the most visible foreign presence in Mogadishu- if you discount the green armoured cars belonging to the AU force (Amisom), which still growl their way through the busy streets." Harding said "they are our brothers" was a common reaction from Somalis when the Turkish were mentioned, and noted, "While some talk, they act," was how a man called Aden put it to me." Harding's article went on saying, "so why aren't other countries, or the United Nations, more active, and is it fair to criticise organisations for taking big security precautions, given the number of aid workers who have been killed in Somalia over the years? "They could do more," said Mr Kucuk simply. The UK's new ambassador to Somalia, Matt Baugh, still based in neighbouring Kenya, acknowledged that "the Turkish have shown what it is possible to do operationally". Turkey's boots-on-the-ground approach is having something of a catalytic effect on the aid community. "The Turkish aid is setting a lot of pace," said Killian Kleinschmidt, the UN's deputy humanitarian co-ordinator in Somalia. He acknowledged that organisations with Islamic backgrounds "can move better than we can". "It's a constant challenge for all of us to adapt [to the changing security situation]," he said. "We are now making dramatic steps in recent days to enhance our mobility. Some organisations are slow. Some are faster." The humanitarian needs here remain considerable, with hundreds of thousands of people dependent on outside aid and living, in Mr Kleinschmidt's words, "just above survival". The improved security environment in Mogadishu is an opportunity to be seized, but the toughest challenge remains to find ways to reach out to those suffering outside the capital, in areas still under the control of al-Shabab."