Tanzania has expelled the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the country, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Awa Dabo, a Gambian national, is blamed for what the government said a “deteriorating performance” of her office, driven by what it called her “strained relations” with staff.
The Foreign Ministry statement did not comment on the reports, but urged the UNDP to remind its staff that their first priority was to work closely with the Tanzanian government to help it meet its development targets.
Ms Dabo had been deported over the weekend, on the same day the government issued the order, under a security escort.
Neither Awa nor the UNDP has so far reacted to the move by the Magafuli government but local media have linked the shock move against her as due to comments made about last year’s blatantly stolen elections on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar.
It could be recalled that the Zanzibar’s controversial election was re-run in March 2016 and prompted a US government aid agency to withdraw nearly half a billion dollars of funding from Tanzania, describing the vote as “neither inclusive nor representative”.
