At least 42 people, including 25 soldiers, have died in raging wildfires across Algeria as firefighters battle over 100 blazes in several regions of the North African country. Algerian officials have blamed arsonists for igniting most of the blazes.
On Tuesday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced “the martyrdom” of 25 soldiers during rescue operations. Tebboune said the soldiers were able to rescue more than 100 citizens from the blazes. However, 17 civilians have lost their lives so far, raising the death toll to 42. “We have mobilised all available means, materially and humanly, to confront these fires,” Tebboune noted, adding that “the state will immediately start counting the losses and compensating the affected.”
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Most of the fires were in the Kabylie region, which is home to Algeria’s Berber population. The Associated Press reported that the fatalities and injuries occurred mainly around the regional capital of Tizi-Ouzou, which is surrounded by mountains and borders the Mediterranean Sea. The mountainous Kabylie region is known for its difficult-to-access and rugged terrain and has been facing water shortages as temperatures soar. These conditions, coupled with a global climate crisis, could have fuelled the fires that ravaged large parts of the region.
While many villagers fled the area, some stayed back to douse the fires using buckets and branches. Reuters reported that several families escaped to “hotels, youth hostels, and university residences” as the blazes burnt their houses. “We had a horror night. My house is completely burnt,” a witness told the news agency. It also stated that dense smoke in the area hampered the visibility of firefighters and slowed rescue efforts.
Although the immediate cause of the fires is not clear yet, Algerian officials have not ruled out the possibility of arson. Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane told state TV that initial reports suggest the fires in Kabylie were “highly synchronised” and indicates that “these were criminal acts.”
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Likewise, Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud told reporters that “criminals full of hatred against our country and wanting to harm Algeria are behind the fires” in Tizi-Ouzou. “Only criminal hands can be behind 50 fires breaking out at the same time in various parts of the province,” Beldjoud said. He added that the government would launch investigations into the wildfires to identify and punish the guilty.
Similar wildfires have engulfed large parts of Greece and Turkey, killing hundreds, damaging infrastructure, and destroying property. Last week, the European Union said that the Mediterranean had become a wildfire hotspot, fuelled by an intense heatwave and human-induced climate change. According to a recent United Nations report, climate scientists believe that humans burning fossil fuels have led to intense global warming and rapidly rising sea levels, accelerating extreme weather events like floods, heatwaves, and droughts.