France’s foreign minister on Monday vowed an immediate and strong response from Paris after Algeria revealed plans to expel more French officials from Algerian territory after a similar move last month.
Relations between Algeria and France, the former colonial power in Africa’s largest nation by land area, have been beset by a series of problems in recent months despite attempts by President Emmanuel Macron to promote reconciliation.
“This is an incomprehensible and brutal decision,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters in Normandy. “We will respond immediately, firmly, and in a manner proportionate to the harm it is doing to our interests.”
“It is a decision that I deplore because it is neither in the interests of Algeria nor in the interests of France,” he added.
Algeria summoned the charge d’affaires of the French embassy in Algiers on Sunday to notify him of the expulsions of the French officials from Algerian territory, a French diplomatic source, asking not to be named, told AFP.
The officials concerned are on temporary reinforcement missions, the source said, without specifying how many were concerned or when the expulsions would take effect.
France in April ordered the expulsion of 12 Algerian diplomats and consular officials and recalled its ambassador after Algeria ordered 12 French officials to leave in response to the arrest of an Algerian official in France.
Relations became strained last year when France recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Ties soured further when Algeria arrested and jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in November on national security charges.
As well as contemporary problems, relations are shadowed by the 1954-1962 war that led to Algeria’s independence from France and was marked by violations including arbitrary killings and detentions carried out by French forces.
