On Sunday evening, April 13, Algeria announced that 12 French embassy officials, associated with France’s Ministry of the Interior, had 48 hours to leave Algeria.
Such a move has not been seen since Algeria won its war of independence from France in 1962 and France officially withdrew after the Évian Accords.
“This decision,” explained Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, “is a response to the arrest of three Algerian nationals suspected of serious crimes on French territory,” Franceinfo reported.
On April 11, three men were indicted for the kidnapping of Algerian influencer and regime opponent Amir DZ back in April 2024; one of those arrested was an agent of an Algerian consulate. The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Saturday evening indicating that these arrests will have “consequences” and that “this new unacceptable and unspeakable development will cause great damage to Algerian-French relations,” according to CNews.
French President Emmanuel Macron has been busy rallying Europe to unite in the face of continued aggression by Putin and had hoped that the tensions brewing with Algeria could be calmed via diplomacy.
Just last week, Remix News reported that Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was in Algiers and had stated that “a new phase” for relations between France and Algeria had commenced.
