Turkish aid agency donates food to refugees in Cameroon

A Turkish state-run aid agency provided food aid to 5,885 Muslim refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) living in difficult circumstances in eastern Cameroon, it said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Turkish Agency for Cooperation and Coordination (TIKA) said it supplied 50 tons of basic food stuff to the Uni Pour Servir refugee camp in Garoua-Boulai town.

"Turkey is aware of the refugee crisis in Central African Republic, Cameroon, the African continent and the rest of the world in general and I would like you to know that we are here to try to find a solution," Ahmet Bozbey, the TIKA's coordinator in Cameroon said.

Turkey, which currently hosts nearly four million refugees, supports the oppressed people regardless of their ethnicity, religion and language, Bozbey said.

Jam Laurence, sub-prefect of the Cameroon town, said several batches of Muslims from Central African Republic have been coming to seek refuge in Cameroon due to security problems in their country since 2014.

Laurence also thanked TIKA for its contributions.

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes as violence spread in the CAR, in 2013 when militants ousted then President Francois Bozize, according to the UNHCR.

Since then CAR refugees are still sheltering in Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of the Congo. Some 601,642 are displaced inside CAR, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Cameroon alone hosts 247,777 refugees from CAR.

In 2017, TIKA donated electrical equipment and solar panels to a refugee camp in northern Cameroon.