Türkiye welcomes UN aid ship with Ukrainian grain en route to crisis-hit regions

A humanitarian aid ship carrying 20,000 tonnes of wheat from Ukraine has arrived at the Toros Port in the Turkish northern province of Samsun as part of a UN World Food Program (WFP) initiative to support crisis-hit regions, including Syria.

The Beirut-flagged "Brave Commander" was welcomed on Thursday with a ceremony by the WFP Türkiye Office, Turkish Foreign Ministry, Agriculture and Forestry Ministry and the Samsun Governorship.

Acting Deputy Gov. of Samsun Kemal Yildiz described the shipment as a symbol of shared conscience and solidarity for all humanity.

Voicing pride at hosting the WFP, Yildiz underlined that Türkiye has been a leader in food supply to the UN agency and has made voluntary contributions to the program since its inception.

Stephen Cahill, WFP country director in Türkiye, emphasised the operation’s significance.

“We stand today in the Port of Samsun, which is a vital gateway for WFP's humanitarian operations in our quest to end world hunger. We welcome the Brave Commander today, which symbolises our international solidarity and our swift humanitarian action.”

Türkiye’s strategic role in global food distribution

Cahill noted that the ship, which first carried humanitarian aid from Ukraine when the Black Sea Grain Corridor Initiative began in 2022, holds special importance for the WFP.

“This showed the commitment that the Turkish government has towards humanitarian action, but it also ensured that WFP had access to food around the world, which is extremely important for our operations,” he added, expressing gratitude to the Samsun Governorship, the Foreign Ministry and donor countries for their support.

He acknowledged Türkiye’s strategic role in global food distribution, noting that the WFP has purchased $1.1 billion worth of food from Türkiye in the last five years --all distributed as humanitarian aid globally.

Cahill pointed out that 5,000 of the 20,000 tonnes of wheat transferred from the ship would be allocated for the WFP’s humanitarian operations in Syria.

“So, this again shows that our relationship with the Turkish government goes across multiple sectors. There is the work that we do here with the Syrian refugees, and there's the work that we do globally as well,” he said.

Efforts to combat global hunger

“Unfortunately, today we live in a very fractured world when we see what's happening in the vicinity, but we see what's happening in Gaza, in Sudan, in Yemen. And this again, shows that WFP’s work is not just here in Türkiye itself, but it's spread around the world,” he said, “It is a call as well for solidarity. It is a call for all parties to come together. It's a call for Türkiye's leadership in this region as well to be able to be a peace broker in a time of this fragmentation.

But this is not something that they can do alone, right? We have seen many donors involved in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and we need that now going forward, we need that, especially in today's world where we are seeing this further fragmentation, and that's where this really call today is for the humanitarian world to come together and show that solidarity.”

Ambassador Aylin Sekizkok, director general of International Economic Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, highlighted the growing global food crisis, noting that more than 840 million people are facing hunger.

“This 840 million is not just a number; we are talking about real hunger,” she said.

Sekizkok stressed Türkiye’s efforts to combat global hunger, leveraging its agricultural capacity to deliver aid worldwide and sharing sustainable development expertise.