Why Is Turkey Deepening Ties With Somalia?

#africanews
In recent years, Turkey has joined the list of countries deepening relations and ties with African countries. While it still doesn’t have the influence and diplomatic relations that the West, China and even Russia has, the presence of Turkey in Africa has certainly been growing in the last few years. Interestingly when the countries of the Sahel region kicked out French troops and cut off ties with France as well as the West, Turkey was among the countries that the Sahel countries turned to, especially for trade. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have all deepened trade relations with Turkey. However, they are not the only ones. Somalia, a country in East Africa and rarely talked about, is another African country that has deepened ties with Turkey in recent times. Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is one of those African countries that is generally considered by the media as very poor, ravaged by unending conflict and needs help from the West. Despite this, not only does Turkey have strong trade relations with Somalia, it also has a strong military connection with the East African country. In fact, recently, Turkey which already has a military presence in Somalia, agreed to extend its troops presence in the country for another two years. So, the question is “Why is Turkey deepening ties with Somalia? What does it intend to gain? Let’s find out.

The close relations between Turkey and Somalia started in 2011. You see, Somalia is one of those African countries that regularly suffers from severe famine and in 2011, it struck, leading to the death of hundreds of thousands of people. At the same time, the country was dealing with insecurity problems with different armed groups clashing and causing chaos. This meant that the country was not safe. Now, when the famine struck, western NGOs were present in the country, carrying out humanitarian services. However, as a result of the insecurity the NGOs abandoned their work and fled the country. Essentially, the West abandoned the country. Surprisingly, Turkey decided to step into the situation. President Erdogan became the first non-African President to step foot in the country in two decades, and launched a partnership that extended beyond humanitarian services.