At least 41 people were injured during new fires. Since the beginning of August, 106 claims have declared themselves who have already destroyed 800 hectares of forest and 1,800 hectares of coppice.
Le Monde with AFP
Twenty-six people died and several dozen others were injured in forest fires which touched, Wednesday, August 17, 14 departments in northern Algeria, reviving the specter of summer 2021, the most Murder of modern history of the country.
“Twenty-six people died: two in Sétif and 24 in Al-Tarf”, near the border with Tunisia, announced the Minister of the Interior, Kamel Beldjoud, on the evening television news. Several people suffer from burns or respiratory difficulties but no new official figures have been given on the number of injured.
A previous statement of civil protection reported four people burned to various degrees and 41 others suffering from breathing difficulties in Souk Ahras, another border city of Tunisia. Impressive television images show residents of this locality of around 500,000 inhabitants fleeing their house against the flames. According to local media, more than 350 families are affected.
The gendarmerie closed several roads because of fires. “Thirty-nine fires in 14 wilayas (prefectures) are underway,” the civil protection said in the afternoon, specifying that the wilaya of Al-Tarf recorded the greatest number with 16 lights, including a good number ongoing. According to private television Ennahar, around fifty people are hospitalized in Al-Tarf, a municipality of around 100,000 inhabitants.
Water bombers helicopters intervened in three prefectures, including Souk Ahras. Those of civil protection are supported by army helicopters. Algiers also chartered a Bombardier Russian water plane Beriev Be 200. But after intervening on various claims, he suffered a breakdown and will not be operational again until Saturday, according to Mr. Beldjoud.
These fires rekindle wounds and the debate on the absence of sufficient bombing of water, which had already agitated the country in the summer of 2021, the deadliest. At least 90 people died in forest fires that had ravaged the north of the country, where more than 100,000 hectares of coppice had left for smoke.
According to the Mena Defense site, following their quarrel with Spain, the Algerian authorities canceled a contract with the Spanish company Plysa, a specialized subsidiary of the Air Nostrum airline, for the supply of seven bomber planes ‘water. At the end of June, Algiers suspended a “treaty of friendship, good neighborhood and cooperation” concluded in 2002 with Madrid, after its turnaround on the Western Sahara file to align itself with the position of Morocco. According to different media, no plan B has been planned to replace all of these Spanish planes,.
Since the beginning of August, 106 fires have declared themselves, destroying 800 hectares of forest and 1,800 hectares of coppice, said the Minister of the Interior. “Some of them are provoked,” said Beldjoud. With the 26 dead on Wednesday, the report of summer 2022 climbed to 30 dead. The most extensive country in Africa, Algeria has only 4.1 million hectares of forests, with a meager reforestation rate of 1.76 %. Each year, the north of the country is affected by fires, but this phenomenon increases under the effect of climate change, which increases the probability of heat waves and droughts and, by ricochet, fires.