Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, keen to strengthen Ankara's ties with the African continent, said on Friday he would set up an embassy in Somalia and promised major infrastructure projects in Mogadishu. The visit by Erdogan, the first leader from outside Africa to visit for nearly two decades, was aimed at drawing attention to the famine sweeping across the Horn of Africa nation, which is leaving at least 3.7 million Somalis at risk of starvation.
A four-year insurgency between al Qaeda-inspired Islamist rebels and the Western-backed government has turned the capital into a bleak mass of bullet-ridden houses, pothole-filled roads, mountains of rubble and overcrowded, makeshift camps filled with tens of thousands of Somalis. "This place is in flames, and it's possible to put out the fire," Erdogan told a news conference at the end of his one-day trip, during which he stopped by several refugee camps, a Turkish-run clinic and a damaged hospital.
"This tragedy here is a test of humanity, human values, modernity and modern values. We're here to tell the world this test should be passed successfully to prove that Western values are more than empty rhetoric," said Erdogan, who was accompanied by his family and five cabinet ministers. Erdogan's visit also reflects Turkey's efforts to boost its profile in Africa as it has done in the Middle East in recent years and to promote itself as a model Muslim democracy. Turkey is behind other emerging countries such as China, Brazil and India in the race for new markets in Africa, but under Erdogan's AK Party government, Turkey has boosted trade with the continent and opened several new embassies there particularly in Muslim Africa.
"We are going to build an embassy here soon. Our ambassador is going to start working at a location provided by Somalia, and later we will be given a large plot of land to build our own embassy," Erdogan said to wide applause during a news conference with the Somali president.