The Turkish government has expressed concern over the safety of its citizens in Somalia after two of its engineers were killed in a terror attack in the East African nation.
On January 2, 2021, two Turkish engineers were killed when Al-Shabaab militants attacked them.
At the time, the engineers were in a group of Turkish and Somali workers constructing the 30km Mogadishu-Afgoye Road.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, held a meeting with the owner of En-Ez, the Turkish firm that hired the engineers to work on the Mogadishu-Afgoye Road.
During their meeting on Tuesday, January 5, the two proposed postponing the project until the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) guarantees the safety of the Turkish engineers.
This month’s incident was the second one against Turkish citizens working in Somalia.
In December 2019, more than 90 people were killed when Al-Shabaab militants attacked a Turkish convoy in Mogadishu.
Turkey remains one of Somalia’s most important international and development partners.