Turkey is considering supplying sea vessels to Somalia to help Horn of Africa nation build up a Navy.
A visiting Somali delegation tabled a request for two search-and-rescue ships and six coast guard boats, worth some 250 million euros, during talks at the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, or SSM, in Ankara last Friday, a senior SSM official told the Hürriyet Daily News
The delegation, which also visited shipyards in Istanbul and Antalya, was led by Abdiwali Ali Egal, vice-chairman of a fledgling Anti-Piracy Task Force attached to the Transitional Federal Government, Somalia’s rickety internationally recognized administration which is battling also Islamist insurgents. The Somalis requested that Turkey provide the vessels either as a donation or as part of a barter deal with an offer for future opportunities in Somalia’s fishing sector, the SSM official said.
The Somalis, he said, are likely to raise the issue with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he visits Somalia on Thursday and Friday


