The Turkish government on Monday, June 22 organized a repatriation flight for its nationals who were stranded in Rwanda due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. As a measure against the spread of Covid-19, commercial flights in Rwanda have been on halt since March, a factor that meant that a number of people would not find it easy to move in or out of the country. As a means of assisting its citizens to return home, Turkey sent a flight to the Kigali International Airport and carried 37 Turkish nationals and six third-country nationals to İstanbul – its capital. While coming to Kigali, the aircraft came carrying 14 Rwandans that had been stranded in Turkey. Meanwhile, according to information from the Turkish embassy in Rwanda, on the same flight, the government of Turkey sent 50,000 facemasks donated to Rwanda while a private company in Turkey also sent in 40,000 masks to assist Rwandan authorities to tackle the virus outbreak. The supplies were handed over by Burcu Çevik, the Turkish Ambassador to Rwanda today June 25 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Speaking at the handover ceremony, Guillaume Kavaruganda the Director-General for Europe, America and International Organization thanked Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of the Republic of Turkey for this donation intended to strengthen the efforts to fight against Covid-19 virus outbreak. Kavaruganda said that the facemasks will be vital for the healthcare workers on the frontline in the fight against the Covid-19, protecting them from contracting the virus. He added that Rwanda is committed to working with Turkey to implement priority areas of cooperation including education, training programs for police and diplomats, bilateral consultations and trade. Ambassador Çevik commended the efforts of Rwanda against the spread of virus in the country, which derived its effectiveness from strong leadership, rapid and active implementation of measures. She also emphasized that Turkey and Rwanda have been in close cooperation in many fields including education, trade and investments, capacity building and training, security, empowerment of women. She underlined that health could be another important new dimension for the upcoming period.
