# France Expels 12 Algerian Diplomats in Tit-for-Tat Rift
France said on April 15 that it would expel 12 Algerian diplomatic officials and recall its ambassador from Algiers for consultations, escalating a diplomatic fight that had already seen Algeria expel the same number of French officials a day earlier, according to AP.
The immediate trigger was the arrest of an Algerian consular official by French authorities in a kidnapping case. The source packet says Algeria linked its expulsion of French officials to that arrest, while French officials described their own response as symmetrical. The exchange has now become a formal diplomatic rupture rather than a single law-enforcement dispute.
The deeper background matters. AP says relations had been deteriorating since last summer, when France shifted its position to back Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara. That move angered Algeria, which supports the pro-independence Polisario Front. The dispute over Western Sahara is not new, but France’s change in posture appears to have hardened the split.
The packet also says tensions rose further after Algeria arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who has criticized Islamism and the Algerian regime. His five-year sentence, which he has appealed, added a human and political dimension to already strained bilateral ties. That combination of territorial politics, criminal proceedings, and public diplomacy has turned the relationship into a recurring crisis.
France’s presidential palace said the Algerian authorities were responsible for a “brutal deterioration” in bilateral relations, while Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said dialogue cannot go one way. Algeria’s foreign ministry countered that France had humiliated the country and violated diplomatic norms by arresting the consular official.
The source packet also notes that French counterterrorism prosecutors had arrested three Algerian nationals and charged them preliminarily with kidnapping or arbitrary detention in connection with a terrorist undertaking. Those charges are tied to the alleged April 2024 kidnapping of Algerian influencer Amir Boukhors, known online as Amir DZ. The case provides the legal backdrop for the latest diplomatic moves.
The recall of the ambassador is particularly important because it signals that the dispute is no longer being managed quietly. Diplomatic expulsions are common in serious rows, but an ambassador being recalled for consultations is a stronger sign that political trust has deteriorated.
Even so, the packet shows that the two governments had only recently tried to improve relations. Macron and Tebboune spoke by phone about two weeks earlier and reportedly agreed to revive bilateral ties. The latest expulsions make clear how quickly that thaw collapsed.
