PARIS >> France said Tuesday it was expelling 12 Algerian diplomatic officials a day after Algeria announced the expulsion of the same number of French officials in escalating tensions between the two countries.

Algeria said Monday that its expulsion of 12 French officials was over the arrest of an Algerian consular official by French authorities in a kidnapping case, but relations between the two sides have been deteriorating since last summer. That’s when France shifted its position to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara.

In addition to what French officials called the “symmetrically” calibrated expulsion of 12 Algerian officials, France’s ambassador to Algiers also was being recalled home for consultations.

— The Associated Press

It said Algerian authorities were responsible for “a brutal deterioration in our bilateral relations.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on X that Algeria’s decision was “unjustified” and that dialogue “cannot go one-way.”

French counterterrorism prosecutors said three Algerian nationals in total were arrested last week and handed preliminary charges of “kidnapping or arbitrary detention … in connection with a terrorist undertaking.”

The group is allegedly involved in the April 2024 kidnapping of an Algerian influencer, Amir Boukhors, or Amir DZ, a known critic of the Algerian government with 1.1 million followers on TikTok.

The Algerian foreign affairs ministry said the arrest of the consular official as part of the kidnapping case aimed to “humiliate Algeria, with no consideration for the consular status of this agent, disregarding all diplomatic customs and practices, and in flagrant violation of the relevant conventions and treaties.”

The latest surge in acrimony followed a brief easing of tensions about two weeks ago when French President Emmanuel Macron called Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune. French officials said at the time that they had agreed to revive bilateral relations.