Wildfires raging across Algeria have killed more than 30 people, including 10 soldiers battling the flames. They have forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes along the country’s Mediterranean coastal region.
The deaths were reported on Monday as temperatures hit 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) in parts of the North African country. The Algerian interior ministry said it recorded 97 blazes, fanned by fierce winds and extreme heat, across 16 provinces.
The fires killed at least 34 people, including 10 soldiers, as they raged through residential areas, the ministry said, revising an earlier toll of 15 dead. According to that initial toll, at least 26 people were injured.
The ministry said the fires forced the evacuation of some 1,500 people from Bejaia, Bouira, and Jijel provinces east of Algiers. The three provinces in Algeria’s Mediterranean coastal region have witnessed the intensity of the fires. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune offered his condolences to the victims' families, both civilians and security personnel.
About 7,500 firefighters and 350 trucks, aided by aerial support, battled to control flames across the country. This includes the Boumerdes, Tizi Ouzou, Jijel, and Skikda regions. Operations were under way to extinguish fires in six provinces, the interior ministry said. It called on citizens to “avoid areas affected by fires" and report new blazes to toll-free phone numbers.
“Civil protection services will remain mobilized until fires are completely extinguished,” it added. The Bejaia prosecutor’s office has ordered a preliminary probe to identify the causes of the blazes and potential perpetrators. This is said in a statement.
Images shared by local media showed fields and forests on fire in the area. In addition, there were charred vehicles and charred storefronts. While Algeria is no stranger to wildfires in the summer, this year, they have been exacerbated by a heatwave that has seen several Mediterranean countries break temperature records.
In neighboring Tunisia, temperatures neared 50 °C (122 °F). Fires raged again in a Tunisian pine forest near the Algeria border after another blaze last week. At least 300 people were evacuated by sea and land from Melloula, according to the national guard.
In some other North African countries, such as Morocco and Libya, temperatures were relatively normal compared with annual averages. Scientists rank the Mediterranean region as a hot spot for climate change.
A man tries to extinguish the remains of a fire in the village of Zberber, Bouira province, in the mountainous Kabyle region of Algeria [EPA-EFE]
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of more heatwaves, crop failures, droughts, rising seas, and influxes of invasive species.
