Relations between France and Algeria are again tense. The President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, decided on Wednesday to call his ambassador in France “for consultations” after the “exfiltration” of the activist and journalist Amira Bouraoui through Tunisia on Monday night, the presidency announced in a statement.
Underlining that Algeria, through an official note, “firmly protested against the clandestine and illegal exfiltration of an Algerian citizen” to France, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the dismissal of the Algerian ambassador to France, Saïd Moussi, with immediate effect, he said. the presidency.
Detained in Tunisia on Friday from where she was at risk of deportation to Algeria, political activist and journalist Amira Bouraoui was finally allowed to board a flight to France on Monday night.
A “violation of national sovereignty”
This Franco-Algerian was subject to a ban on leaving the territory in Algeria. She had been stopped by the Tunisian police when she tried to board a plane bound for France. A judge released her on Monday, but she was then taken away by Tunisian police before gaining protection from the French consulate in Tunis.
Shortly before the withdrawal of the Algerian ambassador in 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 part of diplomatic agents, consular officers and security personnel of the French State”.
These personnel “participated in a clandestine and illegal exfiltration operation of an Algerian national whose physical presence in the national territory is prescribed by the Algerian justice system,” the ministry said in a press release.
Bouraoui promises a “very fast” return to Algeria
For her part, the journalist said this Wednesday on Facebook: “This is not an exile, here I am at home like in Algeria.”
Bouraoui considered having been “kidnapped” in Tunisia and thanked “everyone who made sure” that she did not find “another time behind bars”, citing the NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), journalists, consular personnel from the French Embassy in Tunis.
“I’ll be back very soon” in Algeria, he promised.
A “damage” to Algerian-French relations
In its official note, Algeria rejected this “inadmissible and indescribable” fact that causes “great damage” to Algerian-French relations.
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. Subsequently, the two Heads of State signed a joint declaration to relaunch bilateral cooperation.
In October, it was French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, accompanied by around fifteen ministers, who went to Algiers to finalize the reconciliation between the two countries through agreements in industry, the creation of start-ups, tourism and culture.
Source: BFM TV
