Corona and the fake savior: TIKA penetrates Africa with medical aid of a political nature

Mahmoud al-Batakoushi

Despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s catastrophic failure to manage the corona crisis in his country, where the number of infected people exceeds the 100,000 mark, he insists on using the pandemic to penetrate countries in Africa, especially Sudan and Somalia.

Erdogan is desperately trying to extend his influence in Africa once again, this time by means of providing aid and medical supplies to prevent the corona virus. This is especially the case in Sudan, whose relations with Turkey have witnessed a state of frigidity following the overthrow of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a pro-Ankara Brotherhood member.

TIKA poisons Sudan

The Turkish government has harnessed all the potential of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), which receives large amounts of funds from Ankara and has more than 30 branches in Africa, to provide aid and medical supplies to some countries under the pretext of helping them prevent the outbreak of the corona virus.

In Sudan, which is of great strategic importance to Erdogan, TIKA plays an important and vital role in exploiting the corona pandemic, as it produces medical masks for health sector workers in sensitive areas, particularly Darfur, where it works to meet the drinking water needs in North Darfur by drilling wells. But this will later be exploited to serve Erdogan’s interests.

Turkey’s IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation also distributed sterilization supplies, in addition to distributing food baskets to 315 families in Sudan’s Omdurman, as well as 500 food baskets to poor families in Nyala, South Darfur.

Mask of diplomacy

Under the guise of diplomacy and soft relations, Turkish Ambassador to Sudan Irfan Neziroglu talks about establishing relations with high-ranking officials in Sudan, stressing that his country is ready to provide economic aid to Sudan to help it get out of its economic crises.

The Turkish government has also been keen to send medical aid to Somalia, where a military cargo plane carrying medical aid recently flew from Ankara to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, under the supervision of the Turkish Ministry of Health and the Turkish Red Crescent, in an attempt to gain influence there.

TIKA has also provided aid to the Kingdom of Lesotho, located in southern Africa, in the form of medical supplies to fight against the corona virus, especially since Lesotho is facing major problems in fighting the pandemic and lacks sterilizers, medical masks and gloves.

TIKA’s coordination office in South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, provided medical aid and cleaning and sterilization supplies to hospitals, health institutions and needy families in Lesotho as part of the medical support provided by Turkey to combat the corona pandemic.

Medical aid was also sent to the autonomous region of Somaliland in northern Somalia, as the region is facing a major challenge in fighting the corona virus.

However, Erdogan is exploiting this aid politically to penetrate the African continent, as his own country is suffering from the effects of the pandemic due to the high incidence of infection. Turkey has the eighth highest number of recorded infections in the world, after it surpassed Iran. Meanwhile, Erdogan has the audacity to claim that his government has dealt with the virus better than any other country, which is completely denied by the reality on the ground, as the pandemic has led to the devaluation of the Turkish lira, the erosion of its foreign reserves, and the drowning of Turkey’s already fragile economy, which is now in great danger.