Already 65 dead.
This is the provisional assessment announced by the Algerian government on the fires in Kabylia on Wednesday.
Since Monday evening, more than 70 fires have broken out in northern Algeria, devastating entire forests and surrounding villages.
Update on what happened in recent days.
A drought that complicates everything
The fires broke out on Monday evening in Kabylia. The figures on the number of reported fires differ between organizations. According to the Prime Minister, since Monday, more than 70 fires have broken out in 18 wilayas (name of administrative districts in Algeria), in the north of the country. Colonel Farouk Achour of Civil Protection, meanwhile spoke on Wednesday of "99 homes in 18 wilayas." This morning, we are at 69 households in 14 wilayas. Much effort was made during the night, when 30 fires were extinguished, ”on Radio Chaîne III.
According to a report provided on Wednesday by Algerian national television, the fires have killed at least 65 people, including 28 soldiers.
Most of these victims come from the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou.
The soldiers died while evacuating villagers late Tuesday afternoon.
12 others are “hospitalized in critical condition”.
A disaster "in the fullest sense of the word" is happening now in Tizi Ouzou, one of the states of Algeria.
Please i'm asking you to pray for Algeria ❤️🩹🤲🏻. # PrayForAlgeria #Kabylie # تيزي_وزو # تيزي_وزو_تحترق pic.twitter.com/vNTW9OdDIX
- ALGERIAN TAG 🇩🇿 # الجزاير_تحترق (@alg_tag) August 9, 2021
“Due to the current climate in North Africa, the power of fire is out of the ordinary.
This makes it necessary to send a lot of people, sometimes on foot, in conditions which are dangerous.
With these temperatures, it is extremely difficult to work for the armed forces, ”explains Colonel Pierre Schaller, an expert in forest fires.
Indeed, the drought the country is experiencing is not helping to contain the flames.
Monday, the day was marked by high heat (45 degrees), and strong winds, which favor the spread of fires, added to the drought of the plants at this time of the year.
On Wednesday, solidarity channels were posted on social networks.
Clothing, medicines, or even baby products were in demand in the fundraising efforts.
Calls for the arrival of doctors, medical students, and veterinarians, were also posted, facing the saturation of hospitals.
The criminal trail
Regarding the origins of these fires, the authorities put forward the criminal track.
"There are only criminal hands who can alone be at the origin of the outbreak of more than 50 fires in all the municipalities of the state at the same time", declared Tuesday the Minister of the Interior Kamal Beljoud highlighting the similarity of these fires to other fires recorded in other parts of the country, such as in Khenchela in July.
More than 2,500 ha had burned by then.
The conservator of the forests of the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou, Youcef Ould Mohamed delivers the same analysis according to the newspaper Le Soir d'Algérie: “The simultaneous outbreak of about thirty fires, including ten important ones, in different communes of the wilaya. even day when a special weather report launches a heat wave alert, cannot have a natural origin.
From our experience, it is impossible for the origin of these fires to be natural, they are arson ”.
O Allah shower upon Algeria abundant rain 💔💔💔 # PrayForAlgeria pic.twitter.com/BtFlmUnt4d
- Aya ☕️ (@_merveille__) August 9, 2021
Algerian public radio announced on Tuesday the arrest of three "arsonists" in Medea in the north, where a fire also broke out.
A fourth was arrested in Annaba, according to the Algerie Presse Service agency.
Lack of means
In this context, the opposition political parties denounced the government's lack of action. “Since the beginning of the afternoon, dozens of fires have broken out in some wilayas of the country, especially in Kabylia, without the authorities triggering even a semblance of an ORSEC plan
(Editor's note: crisis management)
or that an official does not deign to speak, ”declared Monday evening Mohcine Belabbas, president of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD).
The Workers' Party explains that "the adequate means in such a circumstance are not available because, as for the Covid-19, no anticipatory measures have been taken by the various governments which have followed one another for decades ", Stressing that" no lesson has been learned either from the fires which ravaged Khenchela recently ", as reported by the newspaper TSA.
These are not the first forest fires in Algeria: in 2020 already, 43,918 ha had burned.
The situation is not likely to get better, with the heatwave in several Algerian regions announced on Tuesday.
In Tizi-Ouzou for example, the temperature reached 44 ° on Wednesday, and the heat is not expected to drop much in the days that follow.
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“It will be very long, as we saw in Greece.
Not only do we have to slow down and stop the progression of the fire, but then it will be weeks of work to avoid a resumption, it is exhausting and dangerous work, which mobilizes a lot of human resources ”relates Pierre Schaller.
In a statement on Algerian television, Prime Minister Bin Abdul Rahman said Algeria was working with Europe to hire planes to put out the fires.
According to our information, France will send two canadairs and an investigation plane to Algeria tomorrow.
Last week, the government has already sent 3 Canadairs, 40 rescuers, and 40 firefighters to Greece, to help control the fires that have killed at least 9 people.