Turkey provided 33 tons of food aid to conflict-ridden Afghanistan Monday. The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) delivered the aid to its Afghan counterpart at a ceremony in the capital Kabul.
The aid will cover the one-month need of 16,000 people in the country that has seen a growing wave of migration abroad and faces uncertainty after the Taliban takeover.
Turkish Ambassador in Kabul Cihad Erginay said more aid would be delivered in the coming months.
Ankara maintains close ties with Afghanistan since the first formal ties were established during the early years of the Republic of Turkey.
Speaking at the hand-over ceremony, Ambassador Erginay urged the international community to take part in humanitarian aid efforts in Afghanistan.
“Turkish Red Crescent and other Turkish agencies will continue to help the people of Afghanistan. This is our humanitarian duty,” he said.
Erginay added that Afghanistan suffered for a long period from problems such as drought to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sefatullah Quraishi, head of the Afghan Red Crescent, said they appreciated Turkey’s aid. “Afghanistan just emerged from war and we have a growing humanitarian crisis. We have 19 to 25 million people who are affected by drought and economic problems,” he said.
The Turkish Red Crescent, which set up its first office in the country in 2018, will deliver aid in cooperation with the Afghan Red Crescent in Kabul, as well as in Jalalabad and Ghazni.
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