The German ambassador to Chad will be expelled within 48 hours for "discourteous behavior" and failure to respect diplomatic customs, the Chadian government announced on Friday.

The government "requests Jan Christian Gordon Kricke, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany, to leave Chadian territory within 48 hours," government spokesman Aziz Mahamat Saleh said in a statement. The authorities did not give details of the accusations against the ambassador.

A Chadian government source explained that the authorities had criticized the diplomat for, among other things, "interfering too much" in the "governance of the country," and "remarks tending to divide Chadians." Kricke had received several "calls to order," the source said.

In a related context, sources in the German Federal Foreign Office said, in statements, that the reasons that prompted the Chadian government to declare the ambassador in N'Djamena persona non grata are completely incomprehensible, noting that the Foreign Office is in contact with the Chadian government on this issue.

The ambassador, Jan Christian Gordon Kricke, has been in the role since July 2021, and he has previously served as a diplomat in Niger, Angola and the Philippines. He was also a special representative for Germany in the unstable Sahel.

Source: Qatar News Agency