News24.com. 24/01/2001
13:18 - (SA)
Kigali - Cuba and Burundi have agreed to renew co-operation in the sectors
of health and education, official sources in Bujumbura announced on Wednesday.
The agreement to relaunch co-operation, which was suspended in 1992, was
signed on Tuesday by Stanislas Ntahobari, Burundi's Health Minister, and Portero
Urquizo, the head of a Cuban delegation which had spent a week in Burundi, the
state-owned Burundi News Agency (ABP) reported on Tuesday.
The cooperation between the two countries was suspended in 1992 due to
economic problems in Cuba which led to the closure of many of its
representations abroad, ABP indicated.
Urquizo was heading a team of doctors who had come to relaunch the
co-operation, it is said.
According to Ntahobari, Cuba has given priority to revitalising its
relations with Burundi.
"Cuba has committed itself to send 100 doctors, of whom the first group
of 50 generalists and specialists will arrive in Bujumbura next March," ABP
reported.
It also reported that Cuba will send 14 professors to Burundi in late March.
Cuba and Burundi are also expected to sign an agreement relating to trade
and industries, and are to reopen their respective embassies soon. - Sapa-DPA
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