Turkish NGOs provide aid to more than 50,000 families in Yemen

By Mubarak Muhammed

SANAA, Yemen (AA) – Over the past four months Turkish organizations have distributed aid to more than 50,000 poor and displaced families in war-torn Yemen, according to a local NGO.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Al-Badia Foundation for Development and Humanitarian Works said the bulk of the aid in the form of food and clothes was provided by the Turkish Diyanet Foundation – affiliated with Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) – across 12 provinces, benefiting more than 37,000 families.

The NGO said during the same period, it carried out projects funded by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Authority (IHH) to distribute relief aid and meat across five provinces for approximately 4,000 families.

Adel Bin Salim, Al-Badia’s executive director, said the group, in partnership with Turkish organizations, seeks to help provide food, non-food, and cash aid to vulnerable Yemenis, orphans and displaced people in the targeted provinces.

Other Turkish NGOs that provided aid to hundreds of Yemeni in the past four months included the Bilash Association, Post Eli Association, and Wasl Association.

Bin Salim thanked the Turkish government and people for their steady support for the Yemeni people.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation, causing one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crises, with 233,000 people killed, nearly 80% or about 30 million needing humanitarian assistance and protection, and more than 13 million in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara