JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said Wednesday foreign ministers of member states will meet in Turkey next week to discuss aid to drought- and famine-hit Somalia. The meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday follows a "call by Turkey to help the people of Somalia," said the largest pan-Islamic body, which is based in Saudi Arabia. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called last week on the 57-member OIC to meet to intervene in Somalia, the Turkish Anatolia news agency said. Member states gathered in Istanbul last month to coordinate an emergency response to the devastating drought in Somalia. The OIC would start by distributing aid to some 40,000 people in the Afgooye corridor near Mogadishu under an agreement with the World Food Program, Ihsanoglu said at the time. The United Nations last month officially declared famine in two areas of southern Somalia, as the world slowly mobilized to help 12 million people battling hunger in the region's worst drought in 60 years. Tens of thousands have died. Parts of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti are also hit by the drought.
