As The Ambassador Returns to Algiers, France Takes Steps to Mend Relations with Algeria

In an attempt to mend strained ties, France’s ambassador to Algeria has returned to the North African nation along with a senior envoy scheduled to remember a massacre during the colonial era.

Since 2024, when Paris formally supported Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, while Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front, relations between France and Algeria have been tense.

On Friday, French Deputy Armed Forces Minister Alice Rufo arrived in Setif, in eastern Algeria, to participate in events commemorating the 1945 French colonial troops’ suppression of mostly Muslim Algerian demonstrators.

Ambassador Stephane Romatet, who was recalled from his position more than a year ago, followed Rufo. Romatet will return to his duties in the North African nation.

The Elysee stated that the visit represented a “determination to address relations between France and Algeria with honesty, while respecting all the memories connected to them” and to “restore an effective dialogue,” making it a significant indication of reconciliation between Algiers and Paris.

Algerian sources indicate that up to 45,000 people were killed during the French General Raymond Duval’s 1945 crackdown. On May 8 of that year, a celebration commemorating the allied victory over Nazi Germany sparked pro-independence demonstrations.