Turkey offers condolences on Colombia's mudslide deaths

By Ahmet Sait Akcay

ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Ministry on Sunday offered condolences to families of victims who died when three rivers in southern Colombia burst their banks early Saturday, creating an avalanche of mud and rocks in Mocoa city.

“We share the sorrow of the people of Colombia and Turkey stand by Colombia in its difficult time. Turkey is ready to help, if need be,” according to the statement issued by the ministry.

“We offer our condolences to families of people who lost their lives and people of Colombia, and wish the injured a quick recovery," it added.

The Colombian Red Cross said in a statement that more than 200 people were missing and hundreds more injured in the landslides after the overflowing of Mocoa, Mulato and Sancoyaco rivers amid heavy downpour.

Aid workers from the organization and various government entities, including the Colombian Army, have been scrambled to the disaster site. Seventeen districts of the departmental capital of Mocoa in the southern department of Putumayo have reportedly been washed away.