On 19 February 2014 His Excellency Mr. El Hadj Aziz Ndiaye, the new Ambassador of Senegal, was accredited.
Berlin is no unknown territory for the new Ambassador, who shall prepare the first official visit of President Macky Sall.
The Ambassador El Hadj Abdoul Aziz Ndiaye presented his letter of credence to the Federal President Joachim Gauck on 19 February 2014, and thus replaced his predecessor, the Ambassador Henri Antoine Turpin, who after three years' residence in Berlin retired in late December 2013.
Following an invitation from the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, the State President Macky Sall will - after the Bundestag elections of 22 September 2013 – be the first African Head of State paying an official visit to Germany on 31 March 2014.
The new Ambassador of Senegal is however not entering new territory, since he was active as an envoy in Berlin in the period from December 2004 through summer 2010. During this period he was the one who had organized the State visit of the former President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade, which took place on 5 up to 8 September 2006. It should indeed be noted that the last State visit of a Senegalese Head of State took place in Germany from 2 to 8 May 1977 during the term of office of the first Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, and that Jean Paul Dias, former Minister of the Senegalese Diaspora, is the only still active Senegalese politician who participated in that State visit and received an award from the Federal President Walter Scheel. The new Ambassador Ndiaye was de facto also active as envoy and ambassador in Berlin in the time from April 2005 through June 2006, as during this period the post was vacant.
Immediately after his accreditation the Ambassador Ndiaye will have to organize the official visit of his State President Macky Sall in less than six weeks, but thanks to his experience gained in the year 2006 this task should not be too difficult. On the occasion of his accreditation already, it was supposed that he had talked for a long time with the Federal President Joachim Gauck about this visit, as the time scheduled for that meeting was considerably overstepped: which set a signal for the importance attached by the Federal Government to the visit of President Macky Sall.
The new Ambassador Ndiaye is not the only person who returned back to Germany. Also Colonel Bachir Ndaw, military attaché of the Embassy, stayed in Munster near Lüneburg for a training program in the armored reconnaissance section of the fighting force school II from 1998 through 1990, and again from 2000 through 2002 in the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College "Führungsakademie" in Hamburg.
We wish a hearty welcome to both returnees!
Ibrahim Guèye
