Wildfires fanned by blistering temperatures and tinder-dry conditions have killed at least 42 people in Algeria, authorities said on Tuesday, adding that the fires had criminal origins.
Late on Tuesday, the toll stood at 25 soldiers and 17 civilians killed.
Photographs posted on social media show huge walls of flame and billowing clouds of smoke towering over charred trees in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the capital, Algiers.
Photo: Reuters
Algeria joins a string of countries to be hit by major blazes in the past few weeks, including Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and the western US.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune posted his condolences on Twitter for 25 soldiers killed as they worked to rescue people in the areas of Bejaiea and Tizi Ouzou, the epicenter of the blazes.
“It is with great sadness that I have learned of the martyrdom of 25 soldiers after they were successful in rescuing about 100 citizens from the flames in the mountains of Bejaiea and Tizi Ouzou,” the president said.
The Algerian Ministry of Defense said that the actions of the soldiers had “saved 110 people — men, women and children — from the flames.”
At least another 14 soldiers sustained injuries of varying seriousness.
Seventeen civilians died in the Tizi Ouzou and Setif area, Algerian Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane said late on Tuesday.
Earlier, the APS news agency gave a toll of 13 civilians killed.
State radio said three “arsonists” had been arrested in the northern district of Medea and another in Annaba, in relation to other fires.
More than 70 fires have broken out in 18 states across the country’s north, including 10 around Tizi Ouzou, one of the most populous cities in Kabylie.
A media photographer in Tizi Ouzou saw medics carrying away bodies of people killed in the fire.
Meteorologists said that the temperature would hit 46°C on Tuesday in a North African country that is also struggling with severe water shortages.
Algerian Minister of the Interior Kamel Beldjoud, on a visit to Tizi Ouzou, told a television station that “50 fires starting at the same time is impossible. These fires are of criminal origin.”
The Algerian Civil Protection said that 12 northern urban centers were hit by fires.
Public radio reported the arrest of three suspected arsonists in Medea.
Arson has been blamed for several major fires in the past few years in Algeria.
Last month, Tebboune ordered a bill to stiffen punishments for starting a forest fire, with sentences of up to 30 years in prison — and possible life imprisonment, if the fire results in death.
Last month, three people were arrested on suspicion of starting fires that devastated 15km2 of forest in the Aures Mountains.
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