Tension Soar As Algeria Asks 12 French Officials To Leave Within 48 Hours (image @jnbarrot)
Escalating the tension between Algeria and France, Algiers ordered a dozen French officials to leave the country within 48 hours. Paris said that the move is due to the arrest of three Algerians suspected of kidnapping of a high-profile critic of the Algerian government in Paris last year.
Jean-Noel Barrot, French Foreign Minister who visited Algeria a week before, asked the Algerian authorities to “abandon these expulsion measures”, saying if they persisted with their decision, France would have no choice but to “respond immediately”.
In a written statement, he asked Algerian authorities “to abandon” measures to expel the French officials “who have no connection with the current legal proceedings”. “If the decision to send back our officials is maintained, we will have no other choice but to respond immediately”, he added.
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After his visit to Algeria last week, he wrote on X that, “I came to Algiers to deliver the message of the President of the Republic: we must turn the page on tensions to rebuild a partnership of equals, in the interest of our two countries. We are resuming our cooperation in all areas.”
Je suis venu à Alger pour porter le message du Président de la République : nous devons tourner la page des tensions pour reconstruire un partenariat d’égal à égal, dans l’intérêt de nos deux pays.
Nous reprenons notre coopération dans tous les domaines. pic.twitter.com/Bbm5u4zsBY
— Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) April 6, 2025
Speaking to AFP, a diplomat source said that the 12 French officials included some members of the French Ministry of the Interior.
The French prosecutors last week indicted three Algerians, including a consular official, specil involvement in the kidnapping of Amir Boukhors. They were placed in pre-trial detention, and also being prosecuted for “terrorist” conspiracy. Also known as Amir DZ, Boukhors is a known critic of the Algerian government with 1.1 million followers on TikTok.
Boukhors was granted asylum by France in 2023. He was taken in a Paris suburb in April last year and released the following day, according to his lawyer. Algeria, the former North African colony of France, now demands his return to face trial. The country has issued nine international arrest warrants against him on accusations of fraud and terror offences.
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French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs said on Monday that should Algiers follow through with its order, it would be the first expulsion of French diplomats since Algeria gained independence in 1962.
The new diplomatic spats between Paris and Algiers threatens to upend recent efforts to normalise strained relations between the two.
French President Emmanuel Macron crossed with Algiers by recognising a plan for the autonomy of Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty. Things went further down last month when an Algerian court sentenced French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal to five years in jail for undermining national unity, prompting a call for his freedom from Macron.
