France said Tuesday it was expelling 12 Algerian diplomatic officials a day after Algeria announced the expulsion of the same number of French officials in escalating tensions between the two countries.
Algeria said Monday that its expulsion of 12 French officials was over the arrest of an Algerian consular official by French authorities in a kidnapping case, but relations between the two sides have been deteriorating since last summer.
That’s when France shifted its position to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara – a disputed territory claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which receives support from Algeria.
Tensions further peaked in November after Algeria arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who is an outspoken critic of Islamism and the Algerian regime. He has since been sentenced to five years in prison – a verdict he subsequently appealed.
In addition to what French officials called the “symmetrically” calibrated expulsion of 12 Algerian officials, France’s ambassador to Algiers also was being recalled home for consultations, a statement from the French presidential palace said Tuesday.
It said Algerian authorities were responsible for “a brutal deterioration in our bilateral relations.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on X that Algeria’s decision was “unjustified” and that dialogue “cannot go one-way.”
French counterterrorism prosecutors said three Algerian nationals in total were arrested last week and handed preliminary charges of “kidnapping or arbitrary detention … in connection with a terrorist undertaking.”
The group is allegedly involved in the April 2024 kidnapping of an Algerian influencer, Amir Boukhors, or Amir DZ, a known critic of the Algerian government with 1.1 million followers on TikTok.
The Algerian foreign affairs ministry said the arrest of the consular official as part of the kidnapping case aimed to “humiliate Algeria, with no consideration for the consular status of this agent, disregarding all diplomatic customs and practices, and in flagrant violation of the relevant conventions and treaties.”
The latest surge in acrimony followed a brief easing of tensions about two weeks ago when French President Emmanuel Macron called Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune. French officials said at the time that they had agreed to revive bilateral relations.