KIGALI, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday expressed his condolences to Türkiye following Monday's deadly earthquakes in which thousands of people were killed.
"Let me take this opportunity to express our deep condolences to the people of Türkiye for what is happening in the country. Mass loss of lives and destruction of property unprecedented," Kagame said while speaking at the annual Diplomatic Corps Dinner in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.
"We are with the people and the leadership of Türkiye," he told an audience of over 250 diplomats accredited to Rwanda.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday the death toll from the earthquakes had reached 9,057 people with 52,000 others injured. According to the latest statistics, Monday's devastating earthquakes that also jolted neighboring Syria have killed 3,480 people in the northern part of the country.
A magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck Türkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT) on Monday. It was followed by a magnitude-6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude-7.6 earthquake at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province. ■