Turkey opens consulate in Somalia

Turkey has opened its embassy in Somalia, becoming the only country outside the region to have a functioning mission in the impoverished war-torn country. Ambassador Cemalettin Kani Torun and his staff flew to the Somali capital Mogadishu on Oct. 31, and the embassy began functioning the following day as part of Turkey's increasing efforts to help Somalia amid famine and long-running domestic instability, a Foreign Ministry statement said. Djibouti, Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan and Yemen are the only other countries to have operational embassies in Somalia. Torun, a physician who has worked in Africa with the nongovernmental group Doctors Worldwide, was appointed to Somalia in September with the aim of better coordinating Turkish assistance. In August, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first foreign leader to visit Somalia in almost a year as he sought to draw international attention to the plight of millions of starving people.