Gov’t orders Gordon Kricke to leave the country within 48 hours for “disrespecting diplomatic custom,” the ministry says.
Chad’s government has ordered the German ambassador to leave the country within 48 hours, a statement said.
“This decision by the government is motivated by its rude attitude and disrespect of diplomatic customs,” the country’s communications ministry said on Twitter late Friday.
Government spokesman Aziz Mahamat Saleh urged the ambassador to “leave Chadian territory within 48 hours”.
Two Chadian government sources told Reuters that Ambassador Gordon Kricke had criticized delays in holding elections following the coup, and a ruling last year allowing interim military leader Mahamat Idriss Deby to run in elections in 2024.
Germany’s foreign ministry has not commented on Kricke’s expulsion, but a source familiar with the ministry’s thinking told Reuters the move was “absolutely incomprehensible” and that it was in contact with Chadian authorities.
Kricke has held the position since July 2021. He previously served as a diplomat in Niger, Angola and the Philippines. He was also a special representative for Germany in the volatile Sahel.
A government source told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that Kricke was seen as “meddling too much” in the country’s governance, and making divisive remarks.
He had been warned several times, the source added.
Military leaders in the Central African country originally promised an 18-month transition to elections when Deby seized power after his father, President Idriss Deby, was killed on the battlefield during a clash with rebels, ending decades of authoritarian rule .
But last year, the military government extended the timeline by two years, postponing the election to October 2024, sparking protests that left dozens of civilians dead, and troubling regional powers and the United States who have warned of extending the military reign.
Many diplomats in the country, which borders Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Sudan, strongly criticized the violence.
The German embassy, along with others such as France, Spain and the Netherlands, expressed concern about the delayed return to democracy.
