BURUNDI JOINS MADAGASCAR'S STANCE, EXPELS WHO OFFICIALS.

Burundi expels WHO officials coordinating corona virus crisis in the nation.

A letter was sent to WHO's Africa headquarters and the foreign minister said that all four officials should leave the nation.

Burundi ordered the country's top World Health Organization (WHO) representative and the three experts coordinating the coronavirus response to leave their country.

The expelled officials are; WHO's representative Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, the country's coronavirus coordinator Dr Jean Pierre Mulunda Nkata, Dr Ruhana Mirindi Bisimwa, head of communicable diseases and a laboratory expert in the testing for COVID-19, Professor Daniel Tar.

The letter dated May 12, was addressed to WHO's Africa headquarters. The foreign ministry said the four officials;
 "are declared persona non grata" and as such,They should leave the territory of Burundi" by Friday.

"It is the whole WHO team responsible for supporting Burundi in its response against COVID-19," a Burundian official told AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They are expelled and the health minister has totally excluded WHO, accusing it of unacceptable interference in its management of the coronavirus."

The letter did not provide a reason for the decision. Diplomatic and administrative sources told AFP that the foreign ministry aborted a similar attempt to expel the same four officials a month ago.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has described the move as "unfortunate" at a time when greater cooperation was needed to tackle the virus on the continent.

"We are in dire need of technical expertise as a continent, which has a very weak health system and fragile infrastructure, where we don’t have the luxury of kicking out WHO," Africa CDC director John Nkengasong told reporters on Thursday.

This  announcement was also made few days before Burundians go to the polls on May 20 to choose a new president, parliamentarians and locals. However,this  landlocked country of nothing not less than, 11 million has officially recorded 27 cases and one death from corona virus.

But it has taken few precautions against the disease and testing is low, increasing the concern that the true extent of the outbreak in the nation is really unknown,

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