Romanian Ambassador to Kenya Dragos Tigau has officially been recalled and is facing a lot of heat at home after he compared Africans to Monkey’s at a UN building in Nairobi, Kenya. Him, and a group of others were attending a meeting on April 26th, and when Tigau spotted a monkey outside the window of the building, he reportedly said “the African group has joined us”.
The incident was made public on Thursday the 8th, and was followed immediately by demands for an apology from a number of African diplomats.
Appalled &disgusted at learning of remarks by Romanian Amb in Nairobi in reference African Group members as monkeys during Eastern European group meeting. Utter shame attempts to cover up this disgrace. This intolerable &unacceptable in any Age let alone 21 Century in Nairobi!
— Amb. Macharia Kamau (@AmbMKamau) June 8, 2023
On Saturday Romania announced they had only recently learned about the incident, and stated they were in the process of recalling their ambassador over the comments.
Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an apology. “We deeply regret this situation and offer our apologies to all those who have been affected”, further stating “Any behaviours or comments of a racist nature are completely unacceptable”. Additionally, they said they hope the incident would not affect Romania’s general relations with African nations. Kenya has yet to comment on Romania recalling their ambassador.
