The Cabinet Wednesday confirmed the nomination of Elmar Timpe as the new German Ambassador to Rwanda. Timpe replaces Christian Clages at the German Embassy in Kigali. The naming and confirmation of Timpe, who had been the Chargé des affaires at the Germany Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria prior to the new appointment, comes weeks after Rwanda also named Christine Nkurikiyinka as its envoy to Berlin as the two countries move to revamp diplomatic relations following a row stemming from the arrest of Rose Kabuye, the Director of State Protocol in September 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany. Kabuye’s arrest while on official duty provoked massive protests and Rwanda sent Clages packing and immediately recalled its own Ambassador, Eugene Gasana, from Berlin. However at the beginning of this year, officials from the two countries met to mend fences and consequently agreed to name ambassadors to both missions. Speaking to The New Times earlier this month, Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary Museminali insisted that relations between the two countries were not ‘severed’ as stated by media reports. Ends
