Algeria orders 12 French officials to leave as tensions mount

The governments in Paris and Algiers recently tried to improve their tense relations, but now there is a new dispute that revolves around a government-critical influencer.

Paris and Algiers have just tried to relax, with twelve French embassy officials leaving the country. The dispute revolves around arrests in France - and an influencer.

Algeria orders 12 French officials to leave as tensions mount

Paris says the decision is linked to the recent arrests in France of three Algerians suspected of kidnapping an Algerian influencer last year.

The Algerian government decided to retaliate after the arrest by the French police of a member of its consulate in Créteil as part of the investigation into the abduction of Amir Boukhors, an anti-regime influencer.

A new affair that will not settle relations between France and Algeria. Relations that seemed to calm down after the visit of Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to Algiers on Sunday 6 April. Three men, including one working in a consulate in Algeria in France, were indicted on Friday 11 April in Paris. They are suspected of having abducted and then sequestered, almost a year ago, a very critical influencer of the Algerian regime: Amir Boukhors, a…

A fierce opposition to the regime, the 41-year-old accused Algeria of trying to intimidate him by having him kidnapped and then released in April 2024.