France considers response after Algeria expels 12 embassy staff

France is considering its response after Algeria ordered the expulsion of 12 embassy staff over the arrest of an Algerian consulate official in Paris over alleged involvement in the kidnap of a TikTok influencer.

Algiers has given the French representatives 48 hours to leave the country in a move that has stretched already strained relations between the two countries to breaking point. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has warned that if the expulsions go ahead Paris would be forced to respond immediately.

The influencer, Amir Boukhors, 41, is a critic of the Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and has more than a million subscribers on TikTok where he posts as Amir DZ. He has lived in France since 2016 and was granted political asylum in 2023. Algeria has issued nine international arrest warrants against him on accusations of fraud and terrorism but France refuses to extradite him.

In April 2024, Boukhors was snatched outside his home in the Val-de-Marne, south of Paris, telling France 2 television in a later interview that he was handcuffed and bundled into a car by four men wearing police armbands. He claimed he was drugged and held in a “container” for more than 24 hours before being released at 3am. “I fell into a trap,” he said.

Three men were arrested and put under investigation on Friday for the “kidnap, holding and arbitrary detention” of Boukhors. France’s national anti-terrorist prosecutor confirmed that one of the men arrested works for the Algerian consulate at Créteil, south-east of Paris.

Algeria’s ordering of the expulsion of French embassy staff came a week after Barrot concluded an official visit to Algeria where he met Tebboune.

“I ask the Algerian authorities to stop these expulsion measures that have no link to an ongoing legal case,” he said on Monday. “If the decision to expel our staff is maintained we will have no other choice than to respond immediately.”

AFP reported that among the embassy staff ordered to leave the country were a number of members attached to France’s interior ministry whose minister, Bruno Retailleau, has taken a hard line against the former French colony.

Bilateral relations between Paris and Algiers have been tense since last July when France supported a Moroccan plan to grant autonomy to the western Sahara against Algerian-backed insurgents who want full independence for the disputed territory. Paris has accused Algeria of refusing to take back its nationals ordered to leave France and considered a security threat. In retaliation, France has threatened to slash the number of visas given to Algerians.

Emmanuel Macron has also called on Algeria to release writer Boualem Sansal, 75, sentenced to five years in prison for “undermining the integrity” of the country.

Algeria has denied the official’s involvement in Boukhors’ kidnapping and after his arrest summoned France’s ambassador, Stéphane Romatet, to express its displeasure at the consular official being arrested “in the public street … without any notification via diplomatic channels”.

The Algerian foreign ministry said in a statement: “This new development is unacceptable and unspeakable and will cause great damage to Algerian-French relations.” It warned Algeria would not “let this situation go without consequences”.