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.