Turkic states donate Covid vaccines to African countries

The Organization of Turkic States has donated more than 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Burkina Faso and Togo. 

Turkey allocated 200,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan each provided 100,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine and Hungary allocated 211,200 doses of Sinopharm vaccine to be sent to African countries, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Vaccines donated by the Turkic states were sent to the two aforementioned countries on Monday by a military cargo plane, the ministry said.

400,000 Sinovac doses were delivered to Burkina Faso and 211,200 doses of Sinopharm vaccine were sent to Togo, it said.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during his visit to some African countries in October, announced the decision to donate vaccines to the countries in the region. 

President Erdogan also said at the 8th Summit of the Organization of Turkic States that vaccine aid will be provided to Africa on behalf of the organisation.

The name of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) has been officially changed to the Organization of Turkic States last month. 

It consists of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan as member countries and Hungary as an observer state.

Turkmenistan also joined the Organization of Turkic States as an observer country.