A vanguard delegation of one of the United Arab Emirate’s largest aid organizations, Al Khalifa Foundation, arrived today in response to His Excellency Ahmed Mohamed ‘Silanyo’, the President of Somaliland’s appeal to the international community for help in the combat of the life-threatening drought presently raging in Somaliland.
The Honorable Bashe Awil, Somaliland Ambassador to the UAE and the Chairman of RoS’s Zakah (endowments) Registry, Sheikh Saeed Mohamed Farah accompanied the UAE delegation.
Ambassador Awil, speaking to the press upon arrival, expressed his profound gratitude to the UAE for quickly responding to the President’s last appeal to Somalilanders everywhere and the outside world in mid-November.
“The members of this delegation will be conducting a quick assessment tour of the most affected regions. A second delegation rushing in essential supplies will arrive as soon as workable estimates of life-saving supplies are put together,” he said.
The Ambassador added that another relief team from the Mohammed Al Rashid Relief organization will arrive for the same purposes very soon, too.
Sheikh Saeed added his – and his country’s – appreciation of the UAE’s timely show of solidarity with the people and government of Somaliland in time of adversity.
The Sheikh also recounted how Ambassador Awil doggedly followed through pledges the UAE organizations made to His Excellency the Vice President during talks he held with them while on his recent visit to the Gulf sister nation.
This is not the first time UAE relief organizations have come to the aid of the people of Somaliland, especially since 2012 and the visibly thawing, very warm relationship the two sides have developed ever since.
The UAE has committed some 242 Million US Dollars to the development of Somaliland’s largest seaport, Berbera, which is expected to earnestly take off early2017. Of late, there had been unconfirmed rumors that the UAE is eyeing the port and its formidable airport facilities, potential for a totally different purpose: air and naval base. A deal to this effect has not been officially announced on either side yet.
