An injured man looks on during a wildfire in Tizi Ouzou. Photo: RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images
At least 65 people have died as wildfires ravaged villages and forests in northern Algeria. Among the dead are 28 soldiers who died while trying to extinguish flames and evacuate trapped residents, state TV reported, as fires spread mainly in the mountainous region of Kabyle.Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has declared three days of national mourning over the deaths of the soldiers and 37 civilians. “We have mobilised all human and material resources to fight the fire that is affecting several provinces until we overcome this disaster,” he wrote on Twitter late Tuesday night.Hundreds of people from the hard-to-reach villages in several northern provinces, including Tizi Ouzou, Setif, and Bejaia have fled to safety as fires approached, while others stayed behind to extinguish flames using buckets and simple tools alongside the soldiers deployed to fight the fires.Photos and videos circulated on social media showed plumes of dark smoke rising into orange skies rising above villages.Scientists say that extreme weather events such as wildfires are increasing in number and intensity due to the climate crisis, although it is difficult to tie individual weather patterns to global warming.This year, wildfires have taken a toll in countries around the Mediterranean, including Italy, Greece, and Turkey, as well as in California and Russia’s northern region of Siberia.Kamel Beldjoud, Algeria’s Interior Minister, said that high temperatures and wind speeds contributed to the spread of the fire, but he blamed the fires on arson during a visit to the Kabyle region to oversee firefighting operations. “Fifty fires at the same time in the same region can’t be by chance,” he said, although he did not provide any details on the alleged arson.Algeria has no firefighting planes of its own, but the government has said it is in the final stage of hiring planes from European countries.
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