Turkey evacuates over 122 nationals from West Africa

At least 122 Turkish nationals have been evacuated to Turkey from the West African nations of Burkina Faso and Guinea following repatriation requests due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

As part of Turkey's worldwide operations to bring back its citizens for Ramadan amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Turkish citizens were returned to their homeland on flights with the support of Turkish ministries and the respective Turkish embassies.

The Turkish government has repatriated around 60,000 of its nationals from various countries since the start of the pandemic.

Since first appearing in Wuhan, China last December, the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 187 countries and regions, with the US and Europe the hardest-hit areas.