Wildfires strike Algeria as ring of flame engulfs Mediterranean
Three days of mourning declared for at least 65 dead as government claims inferno is work of arsonists
AT LEAST 65 people have died in wildfires in Algeria which firefighters, soldiers and volunteers are struggling to contain.
Among the dead were 28 military personnel, according to the defence ministry, as pictures showed soldiers without protective equipment attempting to shovel soil over the flames.
A further 12 soldiers were taken to hospital in a critical condition, state television reported.
“My brothers have just died … Tizi Ouzou needs help,” a sobbing soldier said in one video posted online.
The blazes in Algeria came as nearly 900 firefighters – including a contingent from Britain – slowly brought under control a wildfire that has raged for nine days on the Greek island of Evia.
Fresh forces have also been deployed to fight a massive new blaze on the Peloponnese peninsula.
The fires in Greece have left at least three dead, destroyed thousands of acres of land, left hundreds homeless, and disrupted the critical tourist season.
The fires in Algeria began on Monday night, with 71 separate blazes burning across 18 provinces including 10 around the city of Tizi Ouzou 60 miles east of the capital Algiers.
Residents of the impoverished Kabylie region have long accused the government of neglect.
In one video posted online, a resident of the town of Aith Sidi Ahmed in Tizi Ouzou begged the government for help. “There are no authorities here, no water, no gas, no electricity, no fire engines, no ambulances to save people,” the man said.
“Our governor is sitting in his office saying we’re creating a crisis cell to put out the fires.
“You should’ve put them out when they started,” he said.
Efforts to reach remote mountain villages which are home to Algeria’s Berber minority have been hampered by poor roads.
The region lacks firefighting aircraft and water supplies are limited. amid dry summer weather.
Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and scores of villages evacuated as fires destroyed forests, olive groves and farms.
Communications have been hampered by electricity outages, disconnected landlines and limited cell phone connectivity in rural areas.
“The government deployed its maximum capacity but the fires were faster due to yesterday’s wind,” said Captain Nacime Bernaoui, a civil defence spokesman.
While volunteers collected donated supplies to help the victims of the fires, the Rally for Culture and Democracy, an opposition party with roots in the Kabylie region, accused the government of an “absolute lack of preparedness”.
The government blamed arsonists for the wildfires, with Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane saying on state television that the fires were “highly synchronised” leading him to believe “these were criminal acts”. Algerian police reportedly arrested three men on suspicion of arson.
The Algerian government declared three days of national mourning starting today.
However, claims of foul play may be a convenient excuse for the government, one Algerian analyst said.
“Authorities jumping to conclusions at this stage served a political agenda as they want to emphasise a conspiracy theory narrative,” said Zine Ghebouli, a scholar at the University of Glasgow.
The Algerian fires come as other Mediterranean countries including neighbouring Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and Lebanon have faced the same problem amid a regional heatwave.
Sicilian authorities yesterday recorded a temperature of 119.8F (48.8C), which, if confirmed, would be a national record for Italy.
A UN climate report released on Monday identified the Mediterranean as a regional hotspot in which rising temperatures would intensify future heatwaves, droughts and fires.