Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) Supports Disadvantaged Groups in Côte d'Ivoire
Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided equipment for banana powder production to the non-governmental organization Femmes de Salem, which works to integrate women, youth, and children into social life in Abidjan.
As part of efforts to add value to bananas—one of the country's most widely consumed products—create new employment opportunities, support the rehabilitation of women who have experienced violence, and combat human trafficking linked to irregular migration, TİKA supplied various production tools. These will be used to produce banana powder, which can be processed into banana chips and baby food, ensuring a sustainable source of income for 100 women.
Speaking at the equipment delivery ceremony, Türkiye's Ambassador to Abidjan, Deniz Erdoğan Barım, stated that the TİKA project was implemented as part of the 'Year of the Family', declared by the Republic of Türkiye for 2025.
Doho Patricia Dorothée, Representative of the Ministry of Social Integration and Solidarity of Côte d'Ivoire, highlighted the significance of TİKA's project in collaboration with the Turkish Embassy in Abidjan and expressed her gratitude.
Disadvantaged groups in Côte d'Ivoire come together at TİKA's iftar dinner
TİKA, in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Imams—the institution responsible for religious affairs in Côte d'Ivoire—and the Municipality of Abobo, organized an iftar program for 1,000 people, primarily from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. Additionally, hot meals were distributed in mosques located in low-income neighborhoods.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Middle East Eye
9 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Azerbaijan maintains oil sales to Israel despite Turkish backlash, says report
Azerbaijan has vowed to Israel that it will continue supplying the country with oil, despite officially halting oil sales last year, according to a report in Haaretz. Baku recently removed oil sales to Israel from its customs records, after steady year-on-year increases in exports to the country which had reached over a million tons in 2024. According to the records, exports to Israel stopped in October amid the war on Gaza. However, Israeli sources told Haaretz that the sales have continued, and that the change in customs records may be due to the transactions being made to traders registered in third countries. "We received a promise from the Azerbaijanis that the strategic relations will continue, including in the energy sector, and we have nothing to worry about," one source said. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Two Israeli sources said that the halt on sales in October was driven by pressure from Turkey, Baku's most important political and military ally. Azerbaijan's state oil company to invest $7bn in Turkey Read More » The Turkish pressure, Haaretz reported, is partly due to the fact that Azerbaijani oil exported to Israel is carried by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, running through Turkey. Ankara cut trade ties with Israel in May last year over the war on Gaza and Israeli refusal to allow Turkey to airdrop humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave. Several Turkish opposition parties and voices have protested against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, accusing it of continuing to supply Israel with Azerbaijani oil. Protests have also taken place outside the Istanbul office of Socar, Azerbaijan's state oil company. The Israeli source told Haaretz: "Even if Azerbaijan stops exporting oil to Israel, we will not collapse. We will bring it from somewhere else. "But they want to balance the situation in which they are dependent only on us, from a security perspective.' Tankers turning off tracking signal Israel provided military and diplomatic assistance to Azerbaijan in its offensive against Armenia in September 2023, which resulted in an Azerbaijani takeover of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Ilham Shaban, the chairman of the Azerbaijani Caspian Barrel Oil Research Centre, told Haaretz that by selling oil through individuals, it can avoid publicising that the exports eventually end up in Israel. He said that Baku could then claim that the sales do 'not fuel the planes that annihilate Palestinian children'. Analysis in November found evidence of 'systemised trade' in crude oil between Turkey and Israel, despite Ankara's trade embargo over the war. The Stop Fuelling Genocide campaign released evidence that suggested that the Seavigour tanker shipped crude oil from Turkey's Ceyhan port to a pipeline near Ashkelon in Israel. Cop29 turns heat up on Turkey and Azerbaijan over oil exports to Israel Read More » The port is the last stop on the BP-owned Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The oil is then shipped from the Heydar Aliyev Terminal at Ceyhan to Israel, accounting for almost 30 percent of its crude oil imports. The researchers tracked 10 journeys made in 2024 by the Kimolos tanker between Ceyhan and Ashkelon, with eight of them occurring after Turkey announced its embargo in May. Despite the ship turning off its tracking signal for several days in the Eastern Mediterranean to mask its route, the researchers managed to identify it as docking in Israel 10 times using satellite imagery. Port logs for the Kimolos reveal that on a typical trip to Israel, the tanker is registered as being bound for Egypt, leaving with a full load of oil. But the tanker does not dock in Egypt, instead 'disappearing' for a few days in the Eastern Mediterranean. This strategy follows a similar pattern to that of the Seavigour, which also turned off its location transponder and reappeared in Sicily days later. The Turkish energy ministry has repeatedly denied that any oil tankers bound for Israel have left Ceyhan since May, stating that 'companies transporting oil through the BTC pipeline for export to global markets from Haydar Aliyev Terminal have respected Turkiye's recent decision not to engage in trade with Israel'. Middle East Eye previously reported that the advocacy group Oil Change International, which authored a report tracking oil shipments to Israel up until July 2024, said its data sources showed multiple shipments from Ceyhan since May. A Turkish official previously told MEE that BP sells oil to intermediary companies, which Ankara cannot control, and tankers pick up the oil "without declaring their final destination".


Middle East Eye
10 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Turkey calls Israel 'terrorist state' over seizure of Gaza aid ship Madleen
The Turkish government on Monday accused Israel of being a "terrorist state" after its forces intercepted the Madleen, a vessel carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, in international waters. The ship, which had two Turkish citizens among 12 activists on board, was prevented from reaching the besieged Palestinian enclave in the early hours of Monday. Turkish officials described the incident as a 'clear violation of international law,' accusing the Israeli government of jeopardising both maritime security and freedom of navigation. 'This heinous attack by the Netanyahu government, which also threatens freedom of navigation and maritime security, has once again proven that Israel is a terrorist state,' the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. Turkish foreign ministry sources told MEE that Turkey's Tel Aviv embassy has taken the necessary steps to ensure that Turkish citizens are released as soon as possible. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The two Turkish citizens who had been on board the Madleen are Yasemin Acar, who is a dual German-Turkish national, and Suayb Ordu. Israeli forces seized control of the charity vessel, which was aiming to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and detained its crew, including activist Greta Thunberg, Israeli officials said. The British-flagged yacht Madleen, operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), was aiming to deliver a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid - including rice and baby formula - to Gaza later on Monday, and to raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis there. However, the boat was intercepted in the early hours of Monday before it could reach Gaza, the FFC said on its Telegram account. Israel had vowed to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza, stating that its military would use 'any means necessary' to stop it from breaching the naval blockade. Among the activists on the intercepted voyage were Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, Rima Hassan- a French member of the European Parliament - and Turkish citizen and activist Suayb Ordu. The FFC reported that quadcopters surrounded the aid ship and sprayed it with a "white liquid". Previous attacks This is not the first time Turkey has faced an Israeli interception of an aid ship carrying Turkish citizens bound for Gaza. In 2010, Israel raided a Gaza-bound flotilla transporting activists and humanitarian aid, killing 10 Turkish citizens and arresting dozens of Turkish activists. The incident triggered a major crisis in Turkish-Israeli relations that lasted for years. Israel later apologised and agreed to pay compensation in a US-brokered deal in 2013. Greta Thunberg aboard Gaza flotilla: Doing nothing 'is not an option' Read More » Ankara's statement also accused Israel of 'using hunger as a weapon' and reiterated its longstanding support for the Palestinian cause. 'Israel's aggressive and lawless attitude will not be able to silence those who defend human values,' it said, adding that the international community's 'justified reaction' to Israel's 'genocidal' policies in Gaza would continue. The incident comes amid mounting international criticism of Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has sparked widespread protests and calls for accountability over alleged war crimes and the prevention of vital humanitarian aid deliveries. Various aid organisations and UN agencies accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza following the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Turkish-Israeli relations have deeply deteriorated since then, with Ankara imposing a total trade embargo and joining a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. According to Palestinian health and government officials, since October 2023, at least 54,880 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, of whom 28,000 are women and girls. Among those killed, at least 1,400 are health sector workers, over 300 UN aid workers, and more than 220 journalists.


Middle East Eye
4 days ago
- Middle East Eye
Turkey ousts five opposition mayors, probes CHP leader
Turkey has removed five mayors affiliated with the country's main opposition party from office after they were arrested on corruption charges, which the opposition says are politically motivated. In a statement on Thursday, the Turkish interior ministry announced that the Republican People's Party (CHP) district mayors of Avcilar, Buyukcekmece, and Gaziosmanpasa in Istanbul, as well as the mayors of Seyhan and Ceyhan in Adana, were dismissed during the course of the investigation. This recent wave of police operations follows high-profile investigations targeting Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was arrested in March on similar charges of financial crimes, including extortion and operating a criminal network. Imamoglu's formal arrest triggered month-long mass protests across Turkey, pushing Turkish markets to the brink. Imamoglu denies the allegations, claiming that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government orchestrated this 'politically motivated' investigation to block his potential presidential candidacy in the 2028 elections. Last year, the opposition handed Erdogan's Justice and Development Party its first defeat in local elections in over two decades. The CHP leader, who won the mayoral election a year ago with 51 percent of the vote, is widely seen as Erdogan's main political rival. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Tensions continue to run high between the government and the opposition. On Wednesday, state broadcaster TRT reported that prosecutors had opened an investigation into CHP chairman Ozgur Ozel for allegedly insulting Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Akin Gurlek, at a rally in the city. Gurlek, a former deputy justice minister, has faced accusations from opposition figures of pursuing cases targeting Erdogan's political opponents since taking up his post last year. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc condemned Ozel's remarks in a post on X, calling any threats against the judiciary 'unacceptable'. The Istanbul Governor's Office announced that, following the suspension of the mayors of Avcilar, Buyukcekmece, and Gaziosmanpasa, the respective municipal councils will convene on 11 June to elect acting (deputy) mayors. With the suspension of these five mayors, the total number of CHP mayors removed from office has now risen to 11 as part of investigations into CHP municipalities. Dozens of other officials have been detained and are awaiting trial.