President of Burundi Evariste Ndayishimiye who has been away from his country for five days returned last evening and has been booked into a quarantine facility for the next 72 hours upon arrival at Melchior Ndadaye international airport.
'We have come from a country where the coronavirus still exists, you never know, we protected ourselves when we were there, even today we continue to protect ourselves. But you never know because you know that the virus passes through the air', Ndayishimiye said upon arrival in Bujumbura on Saturday.
A seemingly exhausted Ndayishimiye after flying 2,253 km said the decision to quarantine himself is part of a continuation of the campaign against covid-19, 'I should heal and not infect others. If we have been contaminated, we must avoid contaminating others. And now we are going to be tested by specialist doctors to really see if we are healthy'.
Ndayishimiye travelled with the First Lady Angeline Ndayubahe, the Minister of National Defense, Minister of Public Health, Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock and the Minister of Trade. It is not yet clear whether these will all be quarantined.
On November 2, the President of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye flew from Bujumbura to Malabo the capital of Equatorial Guinea for a five-day state visit,on invitation by his counterpart President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
For Ndayishimiye, this was the second visit abroad as a new president of Burundi since he came to power through winning the June elections.
President Mbasogo had maintained a close relationship with former President Pierre Nkurunziza, who repeatedly visited Equatorial Guinea and also received Mbasogo in Bujumbura.
For five days, the Burundian and Equatorial Guinean press have been silent on details of Ndayishimiye's visit except for a few twitter posts by Intare House (state house/presidency) carrying only carefully selected pictures to present to the public.
However, during the presidential campaigns earlier in May, Ndayishimiye dismissed claims that there existed Covid-19 saying the disease was a hoax.
'Nobody should lie to you that there is a pandemic called coronavirus. Lucky are those that believe in God's protection. Â God has protected Burundi from that virus,' the General said during a ruling CNDD-FDD party event.
In a twist of events six months later upon returning from a visit in Equatorial Guinea, President Ndayishimiye has a different view of the pandemic to which he is so scared of too.
On Saturday November 7, he called upon all travelers, in particular those coming from countries where the pandemic still exists, to respect the preventive measures against Covid-19.
Review Of Trip
Ndayishimiye said the visit helped to take stock of bilateral cooperation and to see together the situation from the point of view of the well-being of the populations of the two countries which he found good.
He says [him and host] noted that there are great powers that still want to impose their dictates on African countries and agreed it is time to pull themselves together as an African country. It is time to seek their political and economic independence because the opportunities are in Africa, stressed Ndayishimiye.
The two Heads of State have thus found it essential to connect African countries through networks to realize this dream so that diplomatic and commercial exchanges are a reality in Africa.
President Ndayishimiye hinted that four cooperation agreements were signed as well as a memorandum of understanding on diplomatic relations. These agreements are in particular the agreement on trade, diplomatic consultation, and the partnership agreement on the reciprocal exemption of visas for holders of diplomatic and service passports, the promotion and reciprocal protection of investments between the two countries, as well as an agreement in the maritime and port fields.
The Burundian Leader further indicated that he visited four provinces of Equatorial Guinea with his delegation. He was impressed by the significant progress Equatorial Guinea has made, particularly in the education sector, the economy, the exploitation of mineral wealth, road infrastructure, etc.
Impressed by this visit to Equatorial Guinea, Ndayishimiye has instructed the technical teams of the different ministries to collaborate with those of Equatorial Guinea to implement the agreements that the two Heads of State have signed.
Coronavirus Is For Other Countries Not Burundi â€" Ruling Party Says
Source : https://taarifa.rw/burundi-president-ndayishimiye-quarantined-for-72-hours/
