Chad has dismissed the German ambassador from the country
According
to statements made by Chad’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahamat Saleh Annadif
to AFP on Sunday, the German ambassador to Chad was expelled from the country
on Saturday evening after being declared persona non grata for “discourteous
behavior.” The government of Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno asked the diplomat
to leave the country within the next 48 hours because he was “not
following diplomatic practices.” This request was made on Friday.
Jan
Christian Gordon Kricke, the German ambassador to Chad, boarded the Air France
flight on Saturday evening, according to Annadif, who spoke to AFP about the
incident. Aziz Mahamat Saleh, who is the official spokesman for the government,
checked the information for AFP. Officially, the authorities did not say why the
people were kicked out of the country.
N’Djamena
is said to blame the envoy for “interfering too much” in the “governance
of the country” and for making “comments that tend to divide the
Chadians,” according to a government official who spoke anonymously to AFP
on behalf of the Chadian government. On Friday, a representative from the
German Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it was “absolutely not clear” why
the country’s ambassador, who had been in his job since July 2021, was kicked
out.
The new
strongman in N’Djamena promised that after 18 months, he would give power back
to the civilian population through “free and democratic elections.” But
after this time, he stayed in power for another two years, promising to meet
the demands of a “national reconciliation” forum that the opposition
and the main rebel groups had skipped.
When it
was announced that the transition period would be extended, the embassies of
Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the EU all expressed “concern.” Since
the violent repression of a demonstration against the government on October 20,
2022, which officially left 73 people dead but many more according to NGOs, who
also mention “forced disappearances” and “extrajudicial executions,” the
main opposition leaders have been in hiding or exile.
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