Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune decided on Wednesday February 8 to recall “for consultation” its ambassador to France, following “exfiltration” activist and journalist Amira Bouraoui via Tunisia on Monday evening, the presidency announced in a statement.
Stressing that Algeria has, via an official note, “strongly protested against the clandestine and illegal exfiltration of an Algerian national” to France, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the recall for consultations of the Algerian ambassador to France, Saïd Moussi, ” with immediate effect “, specified the presidency.
Arrested by the Tunisian police
Arrested in Tunisia on Friday from where she risked being deported to Algeria, political activist and journalist Amira Bouraoui was finally able to board a flight to France on Monday evening.
This Franco-Algerian was subject to a ban on leaving the territory in Algeria. She had been arrested by the Tunisian police when she was trying to board a plane for France. A judge released her on Monday but she was then taken away by Tunisian police before obtaining protection from the French consulate in Tunis.
“Violation of national sovereignty”
Shortly before the recall of the Algerian ambassador to Paris, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that it had expressed on Wednesday, in an official note, to the French Embassy “Algeria’s firm condemnation of the violation of national sovereignty by diplomatic, consular and security personnel of the French State”.
These staff “participated in a clandestine and illegal operation of exfiltration of an Algerian national whose physical presence on the national territory is prescribed by the Algerian justice”, the ministry said in a statement. In this official note, Algeria rejected this development “inadmissible and unqualifiable” which causes “a great pity” Algerian-French relations.
Joint statement
After a cold snap since the fall of 2021, Paris and Algiers had sealed a clear warming in their relations during a trip by French President Emmanuel Macron last August. The two Heads of State then signed with great fanfare a joint declaration to relaunch bilateral cooperation.
In October, it was the French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, accompanied by fifteen ministers, who went to Algiers to concretize the reconciliation between the two countries through agreements in industry, the creation of start-ups , tourism and culture.