PARIS: French prosecutors have placed a finance ministry employee under formal investigation on suspicion of spying for Algeria, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Thursday, at a time of mounting political tensions between France and its former colony.
The employee is accused of handing details on Algerian asylum seekers, including known opponents of the incumbent Algerian administration, to an Algerian contact working at the Algerian consulate in the Paris suburb of Creteil.
The employee was placed under formal investigation in December. In France, being put under formal investigation means there is serious or consistent evidence that points to likely involvement of a suspect in a crime. It does not imply guilt and it does not necessarily lead to a trial.
The Creteil consulate didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The French finance ministry declined to comment. The Algerian Embassy in Paris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The same probe also led to the placing under formal investigation of a social worker at the French Office for Immigration and Integration. The woman is accused of sharing asylum seekers’ confidential details and breaching rules around professional secrecy.
The immigration office said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Ties between Paris and Algiers have deteriorated in recent months after French President Emmanuel Macron recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. That decision angered Algiers.
As the diplomatic feuding has escalated, France last month threatened to review a decades-old agreement that makes it easier for Algerian citizens to move to France unless Algeria agrees to take back those the French authorities wish to deport.
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French finance ministry employee suspected of spying for Algeria, says prosecutor
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French finance ministry employee suspected of spying for Algeria, says prosecutor
- The employee is accused of handing details on Algerian asylum seekers
- The same probe also led to the placing under formal investigation of a social worker at the French Office for Immigration and Integration
Over 1,000 patients have died awaiting evacuation from Gaza since July 2024: WHO
GENEVA: More than 1,000 patients have died while waiting for urgent medical evacuation from war-ravaged Gaza in the last year and a half, the World Health Organization said Friday.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the UN agency and its partners had “evacuated over 10,600 patients from Gaza with severe health conditions, including over 5,600 children” since the start of the war more than two years ago.
But he warned that “many more patients remain in Gaza awaiting evacuation to receive appropriate health care.”
Citing numbers from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, Tedros said that 1,092 patients were known to have died while awaiting medical evacuation just between July 2024 and November 28, 2025.
“This figure is likely underreported,” he warned, calling on “more countries to open doors to patients from Gaza, and for medical evacuation to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be restored.”
“Lives depend on it.”
The WHO has previously estimated that more than 16,500 patients still need treatment outside of Gaza, while a top official with the charity Doctors Without Borders told AFP earlier this month the actual number was likely “three to four times that number.”
Up to December 1, over 30 countries had taken patients from Gaza, but only a handful, including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, had accepted large numbers.
A US-sponsored ceasefire has halted fighting in Gaza, which began after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
But the deal, in effect since October 10, remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of violations.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the UN agency and its partners had “evacuated over 10,600 patients from Gaza with severe health conditions, including over 5,600 children” since the start of the war more than two years ago.
But he warned that “many more patients remain in Gaza awaiting evacuation to receive appropriate health care.”
Citing numbers from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, Tedros said that 1,092 patients were known to have died while awaiting medical evacuation just between July 2024 and November 28, 2025.
“This figure is likely underreported,” he warned, calling on “more countries to open doors to patients from Gaza, and for medical evacuation to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be restored.”
“Lives depend on it.”
The WHO has previously estimated that more than 16,500 patients still need treatment outside of Gaza, while a top official with the charity Doctors Without Borders told AFP earlier this month the actual number was likely “three to four times that number.”
Up to December 1, over 30 countries had taken patients from Gaza, but only a handful, including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, had accepted large numbers.
A US-sponsored ceasefire has halted fighting in Gaza, which began after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
But the deal, in effect since October 10, remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of violations.
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