Just weeks ahead of a summit of the six-nation Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC), its head Antoine Ntsimi was expelled from its headquarters Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR).

The expulsion of the Cameroon-born CEMAC president Antoine Ntsimi announced on March 21 allegedly at the instructions from that CAR President Francois Bozize.

"Mr. Antoine Ntsimi was just declared 'persona non grata' in CAR without any official reason given," the head of the Communications Department of CEMAC, David Yingra, told Xinhua on phone. He refused to elaborate.

Actually, on his way back from a journey to the United States aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane on that fateful day, security forces at the Bangui international airport prevented Tsimi from disembarking from the plane. He was therefore forced to continue his flight to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, where he spent the night before flying back to his home country Cameroon 24 hours later.

Sources at the Cameroonian presidency said the authorities had immediately contacted the current chair of CEMAC and President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, to seek an explanation.

On March 29, the CEMAC chair sent a delegation to Yaounde headed by Congo's Minister of State Pierre Moussa.

After a 45-minute audience with Cameroonian leader Paul Biya, Moussa simply told reporters that Ntsimi's expulsion from CAR was the result of a misunderstanding. He also said the commission president will soon be in Bangui to continue his work, so as to prepare the summit set for May in the Congolese capital Brazzaville.

"We believe his expulsion from CAR was just the result of a misunderstanding and he will soon be back in Bangui to resume his duties to prepare for the next CEMAC summit scheduled for May this year in Brazzaville," he declared, refusing to provide any further details on the March 21 incident.

Four days later, on April 2, the Cameroonian leader granted audience to Secretary General of the Presidency of CAR Albert Besse, who said they in CAR only learnt of the incident from the Cameroonian media like any other person.

However, he lauded the effort of the current CEMAC chair to peacefully resolve the matter, so that the president of the CEMAC Commission could return to Bangui within the shortest possible time.

CEMAC was established by Cameroon, CAR, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in 1994 to take over the Customs and Economic Union of Central Africa (UDEAC) with the main aim of promoting economic integration among the six countries that share a common currency, the CFA franc, pegged to the euro.

Its objectives also include the promotion of trade, the institution of a genuine common market and greater solidarity among peoples. In the same year, it succeeded in introducing quota restrictions and reductions in the range and amount of tariffs.

Currently, CEMAC countries share a common financial, regulatory, and legal structure, and maintain a common external tariff on imports from non-CEMAC countries. In theory, tariffs have been eliminated on trade within CEMAC, but full implementation of this has been delayed. Movement of capital within CEMAC is free.

A former minister of finance in Cameroon, Ntsimi became the first president of the Commission of CEMAC in 2007. Although his expulsion from Bangui on March 21 is still shrouded in silence, independent reports by local and foreign media say the authorities of CAR may not be very contented with the manner in which he has been running the community.

Following the March 21 incident, Jeune Afrique, a magazine based in France, said despite his post as president of CEMAC with the headquarters in Bangui, Ntsimi spent most his time in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde. In other words, Bangui therefore does not benefit from the fact as it hosts the headquarters of the bloc.

Besides, instead of relying on personnel of the community, he continues to use more the services of the man who was his close aide while he was Cameroon's finance minister, Roger Faustin Ndzana, who is also based in Yaounde.

Ndzana, says Jeune Afrique, withdraws large sums of money from the CEMAC account with the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) in Yaounde, whose sums are then transferred to an account of one of Ntsimi's sons in France.

And large sums of money are withdrawn to hire planes for his "frequent journeys abroad" and thus considered to be "too extravagant," costing the community, one of the poorest and most backward on the African continent, hundreds of millions of CFA francs every month, according to the magazine.

Therefore, the authorities in Bangui are not happy with his management of the organization and wants him to be replaced, a decision on which may be reached at the next CEMAC summit in Brazzaville next month.