Turks in Germany launch aid campaign for Yemen

BERLIN

An organization in Germany affiliated with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in cooperation with the Turkish Red Crescent, has launched an aid campaign to raise money for people in war-torn Yemen.

“Some 11.3 million Yemeni children face death due to hunger, thirst, disease and lack of medical supplies, and unfortunately, every 10 minutes, a child is killed in Yemen,” Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the Union of International Democrats (UID) head Bülent Bilgi as saying on Dec. 20.

“Millions of people were displaced because of conflicts. As a country importing food, medical supplies and fuel oil, Yemen is in a major crisis,” Bilgi said in a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Berlin, urging people not to turn a blind eye to the humanitarian tragedy in Yemen.

Calling on especially those living in European countries to help Yemen, Bilgi said almost 22 million people, or 60 percent of the country’s population, need immediate humanitarian aid.

Bilgi recalled that thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands were injured in Yemen during conflicts ongoing since 2015.

Since 2014, Yemen has been dogged by conflict between two camps based in the capital Sana’a and the port city Aden.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and several of its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at supporting Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi forces based in Aden against Shia Houthis allegedly backed by Iran.

While the Saudi-led coalition has succeeded in wresting some territory back from the Houthis, the Shia rebel group remains firmly ensconced in Sana’a and in several other parts of the country.