Nicaragua has closed its embassy in Berlin following the Central American country's lawsuit against Germany for aiding and abetting genocide in the Gaza Strip.
In future, Nicaragua's diplomatic mission in Austria will take over its official duties, an employee of the Nicaraguan embassy in Vienna confirmed to dpa on Wednesday. Consular duties will also be carried out from Vienna in future.
The authoritarian government of President Daniel Ortega announced the accreditation of the Nicaraguan ambassador based in Vienna, Sabra Murillo, as ambassador for Germany in the official gazette on Tuesday. The German Foreign Office says several hundred Nicaraguan citizens live in Germany and around a thousand Germans live in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua is accusing Germany before the highest UN court of aiding and abetting genocide in the Gaza Strip by supplying weapons to Israel. Germany has rejected the complaint as unfounded.
Nicaragua is demanding an immediate halt to arms deliveries to Israel and the resumption of funding for the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip.