Algeria expels 12 French officials as diplomatic tensions reignite

PARIS — Algeria on Monday announced the expulsion of 12 French officials, shattering recent hopes of a diplomatic thaw and plunging relations between the two nations to a new low.

The country's foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that French consular agents had been given 48 hours to leave the country.

The statement, which was read on Algerian public television, confirmed French officials' suspicion that the expulsions were a response to the arrest of an Algerian consular official in France. It said the arrest 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.''

French counterterrorism prosecutors said three Algerians were arrested Friday and handed preliminary charges of ''kidnapping or arbitrary detention … in connection with a terrorist undertaking.'' An Algerian consular official was among the three arrested, according to French media.

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.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called on Algerian authorities ''to abandon'' measures to expel the French officials ''who have no connection with the current legal proceedings,'' in a written statement.

''If the decision to send back our officials is maintained, we will have no other choice but to respond immediately,'' Barrot said.

He said he saw a car in front of his home, with four people he said were acting like false police officers. Some wore police armbands and put him in handcuffs. They brought him to a remote place in the Paris region. ''That's when I felt and confirmed that they were kidnappers. I had fallen into the trap,'' he said.

He was told he would be meeting an Algerian official, which never happened, and was later released, the influencer said.

According to French media, Boukhors has lived in France since 2016 and was granted the status of political refugee in 2023.

Relations between France and Algeria sharply deteriorated last summer 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 Algiers and is based in refugee camps in southeastern Algeria.

Tensions further peaked after Algeria arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who is an outspoken critic of Islamism and the Algerian regime, in November. He has since been sentenced to five years in prison — a verdict he subsequently appealed.

Barrot traveled to Algeria earlier this month, a visit meant to show the diplomatic rapprochement between the two countries.

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