65 killed in most destructive wildfires in Algeria’s history
ALGIERS: Wildfires tearing through forested areas of northern Algeria have killed at least 65 people, state television reported on Wednesday, as some of the most destructive blazes in the country’s history continued to rage.
“The death toll from the forest fires has climbed to 65 dead - 28 soldiers and 37 civilians - most of them in Tizi Ouzou district” east of the capital, it said.
The government has deployed the army to help fight the fires, which have burnt most fiercely in the mountainous Kabylie region, and 28 of the dead are soldiers, with another 12 critically injured with burns.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tweeted that the soldiers were “martyrs” who saved 100 people from the fires in two areas of Kabylie , the region that is home to the North African nation’s Berber population. Eleven other soldiers were burned fighting the fires.
He declared three days of national mourning for the dead and froze state activities not related to the fires.
Forest fires have set large parts of Algeria, Turkey and Greece aflame over the past week and a European Union atmosphere monitor said the Mediterranean had become a wildfire hotspot aided by increasingly hot weather.
Dozens of separate fires have raged through forest areas across northern Algeria since Monday and on Tuesday interior minister Kamel Beldjoud accused arsonists of igniting the flames, without providing any evidence.
The government has said it will compensate those affected.