Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday rejected a US call for allowing safe passage for civilians and halting its military offensive in the central Marib province.

In a tweet, rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam argued that the Houthis were fighting al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS militants in al-Abdiyah district in Marib.

He said the US call “was a proof on the link between the US and al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS militants, who were defeated in al-Abdiyah”.

"The shouts of the Americans are getting louder as we take on the positions of al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS in Marib," Abdul-Salam said.

On Saturday, the US State Department condemned the Houthi escalation in Marib and accused the rebels of "obstructing the movement of people and humanitarian aid."

"We call on the Houthis to stop their offensive on Marib, and listen to the urgent calls from across Yemen and the international community to bring this conflict to an end and support a UN-led inclusive peace process,” the State Department said in a statement.

On Sunday, a Yemeni military source said Houthi rebels completed their control of al-Abdiyah district following a fierce fighting with government forces and allied tribesmen.

On Tuesday, the Yemeni government appealed for UN intervention over the situation in Marib amid Houthi attacks, accusing the rebel group of besieging 35,000 civilians in al-Abdiyah and depriving them of food and vital supplies.

In recent months, Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks to take control of the oil-rich Marib province, one of the most important strongholds of the legitimate government and home to the headquarters of Yemen’s Defense Ministry.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation and caused one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crises, with 233,000 people killed, nearly 80% or about 30 million needing humanitarian assistance and protection, and more than 13 million in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates./aa

Turkey’s state-run aid agency has been on the front lines in fighting poverty in Kenya and distributing aid to millions who need it on the African continent.

Kenya has benefitted from numerous Turkish aid programs since the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) started operations there in 2012.

As the world marks International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17, TIKA’s poverty eradication projects have had a ripple effect, touching those who most need it and it is spreading like wildlife throughout communities.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Eyup Yavuz Umutlu, TIKA’s coordinator in Nairobi, discussed the agency’s long-term vision in Kenya and how Turkey is focused on eradicating poverty in the country with a focus on improving living conditions for impoverished Kenyans.

Umutlu defines poverty as “the situation of not having income to meet most or all of your daily needs. I think lack of some public services … for example in health, in education or other social services.”

He said nearly all TIKA projects support the eradication of poverty in many sectors such as health, education, agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene, with many livelihood projects.

This year, in Lamu County along the Kenyan coast, TIKA donated high-powered boat engines to fishermen in one project.

“They can put these engines to their dhows and they can go to much more economical places in the deep sea easily and they can fish much more than before,” said Umutlu, adding that fishermen households will benefit from the project.

He said TIKA also set up four production units for women in Marsabit County to offer employment.

“This is another sustainable livelihood project for us,” he said -- one is a tailoring production unit, one handicraft and two beadwork production units.

TIKA has also rolled out an improved livelihoods project through the production of organic seaweed fertilizer for communities living along the coast.

“This is one of the most exciting projects for us because we are establishing a production unit,” he said. “People will get the seaweed from the ocean and that way they clean the coast and they use this seaweed for making organic fertilizer.”

TIKA has drilled boreholes across the country to help people access water which is a basic need.

“For example, in Kajiado, we implemented this project and nearly 3,000 residents are benefitting from one borehole,” he said.

Umutlu said that in the last three years, Turkey, through TIKA, has organized several medical camps across Kenya benefiting thousands of marginalized residents to access health care.

“In these medical camps, there are free checkups, surgeries, provision of prescribed medication and we conducted medical camps of Computed Tomography (CT) scans, dentistry, gynecology, urology, pediatrics and general surgery areas,” said Umutlu, noting the health of an individual is linked to poverty.

Turkey also donated ambulances and medical equipment to health care units and furnished and renovated schools to enable residents to access good public services.

“At TIKA, our major goal is poverty eradication in Africa … especially in our income-generating projects, we try to teach how to fish rather than give fish … instead of food distribution we try and focus on income-generating projects,” he said.

He added that TIKA tries “to support people if they lack equipment … we are supporting them with that equipment. In the case of training, also, we are supporting them with training even in some projects, we try and connect them to the markets, It could be in Kenya or outside of Kenya, it is one of the most important things for the real solution of poverty -- teaching how to fish rather than giving the fish.”

TIKA donated equipment to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) last year to boost food security in western Kenya and support agriculture which is the backbone of the Kenyan economy.

Donations are part of TIKA’s Sustainable Organic Livelihoods Enhancement Program (SOLEP), which aims to end hunger by achieving food security, improved nutrition and promoting sustainable goals in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on agriculture and zero hunger.

TIKA also helped the Lessos Farmers’ Cooperative Society in Nandi County by providing modern, critical Turkish machinery for improved silage production to provide quality feed for livestock, in turn establishing a more sustainable feeding cycle. The farm equipment, which is now aiding hundreds in the community, is worth $86,000.

Turkey has also been on the front lines to set Kenyan farmers on the path to beekeeping profits with beehives donations.

The hives can produce up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of honey per harvest, which can be sold for around 800 Kenyan shillings ($8) a kilogram. Most farmers harvest the hives four times a year, providing up to 64,000 shillings ($592) per hive annually.

Other East African countries have also been receiving similar aid from Turkey from local TIKA offices, which has changed the lives of millions of people./aa

There is a need to address "chronic poverty" and the "dynamics of poverty" in India, a leading expert in India said as the world observes International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Sunday.

The last official estimate of poverty was released by India's Planning Commission in 2011, which put the population below the poverty line at 21.92%.

"To address poverty effectively, people who formulate alleviation programs need to understand and address chronic poverty and the dynamics of poverty," Aasha Kapur Mehta, former economics professor at the Indian Institute of Public Administration New Delhi told Anadolu Agency.

"We know, for instance, that poverty is especially prevalent among certain occupational groups. Casual agricultural labor is the largest group that is stuck in poverty, as per data from the socio-economic caste census. These are the ‘working poor,’ for whom the state has not been able to secure the right to an adequate means of livelihood."

She said financial and physical resources allocated to poverty reduction programs need to "increase substantially" in view of the massive scale on which poverty is experienced.

Mehta, who chairs the Centre for Gender Studies at the Institute for Human Development in New Delhi, said the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the plight of those who are poor.

"What needs to be understood is that poverty is not static but is dynamic. While a large number of those who are poor are stuck in poverty, there are many who are able to move out of it. There are others who were not poor but who suffer a shock and get impoverished," she noted.

"It is important to measure, how many people who were not poor earlier have become poor as well as understand what shocks (such as Covid-19) they suffered that led to their impoverishment and how this can be prevented."

A report by an Indian university earlier this year said 230 million Indians were pushed into poverty amid the virus pandemic.

Mehta maintained that there is a need to estimate the number of people who are stuck in poverty and "understand the structural factors, such as landlessness and low wages for labor, due to which people are stuck in poverty and how these can be addressed."

"On the other hand, we must also estimate how many people have moved out of poverty and what enabled them to do this," she said.

The number of people in poverty in India has always been large, according to Mehta.

"The fact that we stopped estimating poverty after 2011-12, didn’t make the poverty problem go away. However, whether measured or not, poverty, chronic poverty and the dynamics of poverty have remained the biggest development challenge that has faced us since Independence," she said.

Since 2011, no official estimates of poverty have been officially released. The government has said it "accords high priority to the issue of poverty alleviation in India."

Mehta said not having an exact number of poor in the country is serious.

"It is true that we do not have any recent estimates of the number of people who are poor in India. This is a serious issue because the first step in tackling a problem is to understand the extent of the problem. The same is true of poverty," she said. "The first step to tackling poverty is that we acknowledge the extent of the problem by measuring it accurately."

"The last set of official estimates that we have are for 2011-12. The estimates for 2011-12 were that 265.7 million people were poor and 21.9 % of the population was below the poverty line. These estimates of poverty are based on poverty lines that were low. If poverty lines are raised even marginally, the number of people in poverty will rise sharply," she added.

Number of programs

India has implemented a large number of programs to attack poverty through generating work, providing health care, education, nutrition and support to remote areas and vulnerable groups, said Mehta. But she said the amount allocated are inadequate given the size of the problem.

She said identifying people who are in poverty is missing.

"What is missing is a systematic attempt to identify people who are in poverty, determine their needs, address them and enable them to move above the poverty line. The resources allocated to anti-poverty programs are inadequate," Mehta added./agencies

The third edition of the Turkey-Africa Economic and Business Forum will be held on Oct. 21-22 in Istanbul with a high-level attendance.

The event will include a ministerial meeting, B2B debates, signing ceremonies, and panels in which several topics such as cooperation in agriculture, pandemic, innovation and financing will be discussed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo; Albert Muchanga, commissioner for economic development, trade, industry and mining of the African Union Commission, Turkish and Congolose first ladies Emine Erdogan and Denise Nyakeru, respectively; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of World Trade Organization, ministers from Turkey and African countries and chairmen of business associations are expected to attend the event.

The forum's first edition was held in 2016 and the second in 2018 while there was a virtual meeting in 2020 under the pandemic conditions./YS

Four Russian nationals were found dead in Albania, Albanian police said late Friday.

The bodies of two men and two women were found in a sauna of a hotel where they were staying in Qerret village of Kavaje, east of the capital of Tirana, police said in a statement.

The victims might have been strangled, said police, noting that an investigation is underway to determine and reveal details of the deaths./YS

Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino both racked up great performances in Liverpool’s thrashing of Watford 5-0 away on Saturday.

Sadio Mane scored the opener to, marking his 100th Premier League goal with an impressive assist by Salah.

The feat made Mane the third African player to reach this milestone in the league.

Firmino made a hat-trick and Salah scored a solo goal with a spectacular finish, giving the Reds a comfortable league win at Vicarage Road stadium.

Following this victory, Liverpool now have 18 points, while Watford has piled up seven points in eight matches.​​​​​​​/agencies

Racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia and discrimination remain the main problem for the Turkish community in Europe, the Turkish president said on Saturday.

Speaking at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Turkish community in Germany constitutes our common wealth and it holds important social aspect of our relations.”

Erdogan expressed hope that Merkel will continue to contribute to the friendship between the two nations after leaving office.

The president expressed hope that the successful work that they carried out with the outgoing German chancellor will continue in the same manner under a new German government.

For her part, Merkel said the EU's support to Turkey on irregular migration would continue.

"We want to prevent human trafficking. It is essential … for the EU to support Turkey in this regard," she said.

Merkel stressed that Turkey and Germany always have common interests, and added that this would be how the next federal government will see it.

The press conference followed an hour-long meeting between Erdogan and Merkel at the Huber Mansion.

The two leaders discussed issues on their agenda, especially bilateral relations, in today's meetings, Erdogan said.

After 16 years in power, Merkel is preparing to leave active politics later this year, but she will remain in her post until a new coalition government is formed.

Her Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) narrowly lost the general elections late last month./aa