The European Union representative in Gambia has up to 72 hours to leave the country, sources have revealed.
A French radio quoted the EU diplomat and a French national, Agnès Guillard, acknowledging receipt of expulsion notice.
The diplomat says she is not aware of the reason for the expulsion effective Monday.
Responding to the news, the EU head offices in Brusells have expressed surprise saying that no reasons have been offered.
An EU foreign affairs spokeswoman said the European Union was summoning the Gambian ambassador on Saturday to seek an explanation.
“There appears to be no justification for the decision by the Gambian authorities. We are astonished by this announcement which came with no explanations,” the spokeswoman said.
The European Union blocked some cash aid to Gambia in December 2014 because of its poor human rights record, in particular anti-homosexual laws, and was debating whether to release some 150 million euros ($186 million) in aid this year.
But some sources in the know say that the reason could be in keeping with President Yahya Jammeh’s threat two weeks ago over the European Union’s handling of the illegal African immigrants.
President Jammeh had accused several of his African counterparts of abetting with the European Union in meting out inhuman treatment on illegal immigrants rescued on high seas.
He vowed to withdraw his country from the African Union and help to break the Union “into pieces” because the Union was “moving back to the days of colonialism and slavery”.
The Gambian leader then warned that he will retaliate against the European Union “if a single Gambian died on the high seas en route to Europe”.
Several Gambians are alleged to have been among the hundreds of illegal emigrants that drowned over the last two months in the Mediterranean Sea.
President Jammeh insisted that the European Union was responsible for the deaths of the illegal immigrants in the seas because the EU had the means to avoid the illegal immigrants from embarking on makeshift boats from all departure points.
The EU representative Agnès Guillaud, has been in Gambia since 2011 and had had a brush with the Gambian government in 2012 when the European Union urged President Jammeh to end the death penalty.
One year later, the EU curtailed a development funding when the Gambian government showed no signs of abandoning the death penalty.
In August 2012, the Gambian government executed three persons including a Senegalese for alleged murder charges.
Source:Africa Review
Additional reporting by AFP
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