France has recalled its ambassador to Algeria and ordered 12 Algerian diplomats to leave Paris as a diplomatic row escalated.

Algeria earlier this week expelled 12 French officials after one of its consular staff was arrested over the kidnapping of a government critic living in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron’s office called the move “unjustified and incomprehensible”.

However, relations have been on the slide for months. Observers have described the crisis as unprecedented since Algeria secured independence from France in 1962.

There had been hopes that tensions would ease after France’s foreign minister held talks with Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algiers earlier this month.

The two countries have blamed each other for what Paris has called a “sudden deterioration in our bilateral relations”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said “Algerian authorities have chosen escalation”.

But Algerian minister Sofiane Chaib said the latest “fabricated” spat was down to French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, when relations had been in a “phase of warming up”.

They soured last year when Macron announced France was recognising Moroccan sovereignty of Western Sahara and backed a plan for limited autonomy for the disputed territory.

Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front in Western Sahara and is seen as its main ally.

French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal was then arrested at Algiers airport in November and jailed last month for five years.

Prosecutors said he had undermined national security for making remarks that questioned Algeria’s borders.

However, Retailleau became increasingly involved in the row when Algiers refused to accept around 60 Algerians that his ministry classed as “dangerous” and wanted removed.

A deadly February knife attack in the eastern city of Mulhouse would not have happened, Retailleau said, “if Algeria had respected the law and its obligations”.

Macron sought to clear the air with Algeria’s president late last month in what they described as a “long, frank and friendly exchange”.

Barrot followed that up with a visit to Algiers, saying “France wishes to turn the page on current tensions”.

But the high-profile contacts were unable to bring an end to the spiral of underlying problems.

The latest escalation came after an Algerian consular official was arrested with two other people last Friday over the April 2024 kidnapping of an exiled Algerian influencer called Amir DZ.

A high-profile critic of the Algerian government with more than a million followers on social media, Amir DZ was eventually released in a forest.

An incensed Algiers said the consular official’s arrest was aimed to “humiliate” Algeria and responded by ordering the expulsion of 12 French officials who it said were all under the supervision of France’s interior ministry.

Sofiane Chaib, Algeria’s secretary of state told national TV on Tuesday that Retailleau had “full responsibility for this new situation”. He condemned the rationale behind the arrest of the consular official as “grotesque”.

Retailleau said it was “unacceptable that France is a playground for Algerian intelligence”.

Paris responded late on Tuesday with the expulsion of 12 Algerian officials, and recalled its ambassador Stéphane Romatet for consultations.

Barrot meanwhile said the ambassador would be back in Paris within 48 hours, but said that his government would eventually have to resume dialogue with Algiers.

“If we want results for the French people, sooner or later we’ll have to have a frank, level-headed and challenging dialogue,” he said.