The balance sheet is still heavier. The wildfires currently ravaging Algeria have claimed the lives of 38 people, official sources and media reported on Thursday. In detail, 30 people lost their lives in the area of El Tarf, in the far east of the country, near the border with Tunisia.
Five people died in Souk Ahras, two women in Sétif (east) and one person in Guelma, still to the east, according to Civil Defence, local journalists and Ennahar Television. In addition, more than 200 people were injured, according to local media.
The country is affected by violent fires in 14 departments in the north. On Wednesday afternoon, civil defense announced that 39 fires were still ongoing, 16 of them in the El Tarf region alone. The authorities fear fire outbreaks on Thursday due to gusts of wind.
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At least 350 families had to evacuate their homes in Souk Ahras. Nearly a hundred women and 17 newborns, who were in a hospital near a forested area, had to be evacuated, a journalist at the scene said. A major fire was still going on in the mountainous region of Djebel Oued Chouk on Thursday morning.
The dramatic situation highlights Algeria’s lack of resources to fight the fires. Army civil defense and water bomber helicopters responded to several fires and a Russian water bomber plane was chartered, but it broke down and will not be operational again until the end of this weekend, Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud said.
According to the website Mena Defense, after their dispute with Spain – related to Madrid’s change of position on the Western Sahara issue – the Algerian authorities canceled a contract with the Spanish company Plysa, a specialized subsidiary of the airline Air Nostrum, for the delivery of seven water bombers. According to various media, no plan B is planned to replace all these Spanish aircraft.
Since the beginning of August, 106 fires have broken out in Algeria, which have destroyed 800 hectares of forest and 1,800 hectares of coppice, said the interior minister. Enough to revive the specter of the summer of 2021, the deadliest in the country’s modern history, which killed 90 people in wildfires.