Arsenal's Ozil donates $100k to Turkey, Syria and Somalia for Ramadan

English club Arsenal’s star Mesut Ozil has donated 713,000 Turkish liras ($101,000) to the Turkish Red Crescent for an aid campaign for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

According to the report by Anadolu Agency, the donation will be used to provide iftar – the evening meal to break the daily fast during the month – to 16,000 people in Turkey. Families in Turkey and Syria will receive 2,000 food packages through Ozil’s donation, while 90,000 iftar packages will be distributed in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.

Kerem Kinik, head of the Turkish Red Crescent, thanked the London-based footballer for the donation.

“We will deliver the packages provided with the donation of my brother Mesut to people in need as soon as possible,” he said.

Read: Turkish football star Ozil criticises Muslim silence over Uyghurs

The Arsenal footballer came under fire in December, for criticising China’s treatment of the minority Uyghurs and criticising the silence of Muslim nations and leaders on the issue. In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed the Arsenal midfielder had received “fake news” concerning the country’s Muslim Uyghur minority and invited him to visit the region for himself.