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Tuesday, 21 March 2023

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Burundi rescue sends team to earthquake-hit Turkey

Burundi has deployed a “specialised” team of ten to Turkey to help in the rescue and recovery operations following last week’s devastating earthquake.

“[They] will be deployed by Turkish authorities to areas where they need them most”, Burundi Foreign Affair Minister Albert Shingiro told the BBC’s Great Lakes on Sunday.

More than 28,000 people have died in Turkey and in neighbouring Syria where the earthquake hit.

A Burundian citizen who was in the hardest-hit city of Gaziantep was evacuated to the capital Ankara, Mr Shingiro said.

Burundi did not deploy a team to Syria because “access to affected areas is difficult,” but the minister added that “we sympathise with the suffering brotherly people of Syria.”