Central Africa
Chad expels German ambassador
Ambassador in Chad since 2021: Jan-Christian Gordon Kricke (archive photo). photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Diplomatic crisis in Chad: The government wants the German ambassador Jan-Christian Gordon Kricke to leave the country. Among other things, she accuses him of a “rude attitude”.
The Central African country of Chad has expelled the German ambassador. Chad’s government asked Ambassador Jan-Christian Gordon Kricke to leave the country within 48 hours in a statement on Friday evening.
The government of the country of 17 million people justified this with the “rude attitude” and “lack of respect for diplomatic customs” on the part of the German diplomat. There was no further justification for the step. Local media suspected criticism of the current transitional government as the background.
The country in the Sahel region, which is riddled with poverty and corruption and borders Libya to the north and Niger to the west, has been ruled by President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno since April 2021 after his father, long-term ruler Idriss Déby, was overthrown by rebels in the north of the country was killed. Deby Itno had promised to hold democratic elections within a year and a half. In the autumn of last year there were demonstrations by the opposition, which were brutally suppressed. Many diplomats in the country had sharply criticized the violence. Kricke has been ambassador to Chad since 2021.