The wilayas, Algerian territorial divisions, mainly affected are located in the northeast of the country.
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Twenty-six people were killed and several dozen were injured in large-scale forest fires, a announced the Algerian Minister of the Interior Wednesday, August 17 in the evening. The fires touch 14 departments of northern Algeria. Among the victims, two died “in Sétif (East) and 24 in El Tarf (East)”near the border with Tunisia, announced Kamel Beldjoud during the 8 p.m. television news.
“39 fires” are in progress, said civil protection on Wednesday. The estimated burned area has not yet been communicated by the authorities. The wilaya (territorial division in Algeria) of El Tarf, bordering Tunisia, records the highest number of fires with 16 ongoing fires. The most important fire is in the “municipality of Zaârouria in the wilaya of Souk Ahras”further south, 50 kilometers from the Tunisian border, Colonel Farouk Achour of the General Directorate of Civil Protection told Algérie Presse Service on Wednesday.
The previous report announced a little earlier by the civil protection of Sétif mentioned two victims, “a 58-year-old mother and her 31-year-old daughter”. In Souk Ahras, bordering Tunisia, impressive images show residents fleeing their homes in the face of flames. In this city, four people were burned to varying degrees and 41 others suffered from breathing difficulties, according to a previous report.
Since the start of the summer, numerous fires have broken out in Algeria, killing six, reviving painful memories of the most deadly summer of 2021. That summer, at least 90 people died in forest fires that ravaged the north of the country where more than 100,000 hectares of coppice went up in smoke. Each year, the north of the country is affected by forest fires, but this phenomenon is accentuated from year to year under the effect also of climate change.