Paris will return its ambassador to Algeria and send a senior envoy to ceremonies marking a colonial-era massacre in its former colony to improve frayed relations, the French presidency said on Friday.
Ties between France and Algeria have been fraught since 2024, when Paris officially backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, where Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front.
On Friday, French Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces Alice Rufo will attend ceremonies in Algeria to mark the 1945 violent put-down of pro-democracy protesters by French troops, the Elysee said in a statement.
She will be accompanied by Ambassador Stephane Romatet, who will resume his duties, more than a year after being recalled from his post, it said.
The move by French President Emmanuel Macron “reflects the President of the Republic’s determination to address relations between France and Algeria with honesty, while respecting all the memories connected to them” and “to restore an effective dialogue”, the Elysee said.
