Nairobi – Romania has issued a recall for its ambassador to Kenya, Dragos Tigau, and has tendered an apology following racially derogatory comments in which he likened Africans to monkeys. The regrettable incident occurred during a UN assembly in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on April 26.
Dragos Tigau, the Romanian Ambassador to Kenya, made the racial slur in passing when he saw a monkey outside a window, stating, “the African group has joined us”, as reported by the AFP news agency.
The revelation of Tigau’s racially offensive behavior was made public on Thursday by Kamau Macharia, an official from Kenya’s foreign affairs department. Expressing his outrage and disgust over the incident on Twitter, Macharia claimed that efforts were made to suppress the unsavory incident.
African diplomats, in response to the racial slur, demanded a public apology on Friday, asserting that a private apology was inadequate, as reported by Kenya’s Standard newspaper.
Romania, in a statement released on Saturday, acknowledged that it was only made aware of the incident in the past week, and has initiated procedures to recall its ambassador. The statement from Romania’s foreign affairs ministry read, “We deeply regret this situation and offer our apologies to all those who have been affected.”
The statement further denounced any behavior or comments steeped in racism as completely unacceptable, expressing hopes that the incident would not tarnish its relationships with African countries.
Romania primarily interacts with African countries through its affiliation with the European Union, with additional bilateral trade agreements with countries such as Egypt.
The Kenyan government has yet to issue a statement regarding the decision to recall Ambassador Tigau.
Romanian press, while condemning Tigau’s actions, pointed out that this isn’t the first occasion when Romania has been publicly embarrassed by the derogatory remarks of its diplomats. In previous incidents, Romania’s ambassador to Armenia was recalled in 2014 due to anti-Semitic comments, and in 2015, the Bucharest government had to issue an apology after its Paris embassy issued reception invitations with pejorative descriptions of some guests.