Israel’s foreign ministry has protested the ejection on Monday of its ambassador to Ethiopia from an African Union meeting commemorating the Rwandan Genocide.
Representatives of several countries declined to attend the event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, if Ambassador Avraham Neguise was present, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The ministry also strongly criticized comments made by Mahmoud Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, during the gathering. “It is outrageous that at an event commemorating the victims of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, to which the Israeli ambassador in Addis Ababa was invited, [Youssouf] chose to introduce anti-Israel political elements,” the statement said.
Israel announced in July 2021 that it had regained observer status at the African Union, an international forum consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent.
Neguise, who previously served as a Knesset member for the ruling Likud Party, assumed the role of ambassador to Ethiopia in August 2024.
A similar diplomatic incident occurred in February 2023, when an Israeli diplomat was expelled from the African Union’s 36th summit of heads of state in Addis Ababa.
