Twenty-six people died and several dozen others were injured in large-scale forest fires in Algeria according to a report on the Algerian Ministry of the Interior on Wednesday evening August 17. With the fire of a passenger bus on the RN 84A, which connects El Kala to Annaba, which would have been surrounded by flames and where eight people would have died, the number of victims of the fires is increased to 32.
The fires affect 14 departments in northern Algeria and 39 fires are underway, it was said. The estimated burned area has not yet been determined by authorities. But 889 fire outbreaks have been recorded over the past two months in four wilayas in the east of the country, namely Bejaïa, Sétif, Jijel and Skikda. The extent of the damage for this summer 2022 is a priori minimal compared to the past summer season when it was much greater, with more than a hundred human losses, including soldiers.
That said, and while the fires redoubled in intensity and gained ground yesterday Wednesday, August 17, threatening several localities, scenes of chaos were recorded in several wilayas in the far east of the country and the flames reduced in ashes everything in their path. It was El Tarf, a region known for its forests, which paid the heaviest price. Indeed, 24 people were killed in the fires that affected this wilaya. This territorial division, bordering Tunisia, records the highest number of fires with 16 ongoing fires.
The most important fire is in the town of Zaârouria in the wilaya of Souk Ahras, further south, 50 kilometers from the Tunisian border. According to several local media, 350 families had to abandon their homes. 800 hectares of forest and 1,800 hectares of coppice were reduced to ashes. Water bomber helicopters made passages in three prefectures to try to stem these violent fires which are said to be mostly caused. It is not yet known in history if these fires in the east of Algeria were, or not, “caused” by the neighbor to the west.
Still, the death of 32 people in the fires on Wednesday brings to 36 the number of people who have died because of forest fires since last June. And as if to add to the misfortune of the victims on social networks, many Internet users wondered about the absence of the Russian water bomber plane Beriev B-200, whose local authorities regularly publish images of this device in action in several regions of the country except this particularly deadly Wednesday.
The Algerian Minister of the Interior gave the reason for his absence by declaring on Algerian TV that “unfortunately, this aircraft which we chartered from Russia last June, has been broken down for three days and will be repaired by next Saturday“. In the meantime, forest fires and fires, helping winds and heat waves are still running and continuing their disasters.
It is all the sadder when the bad crisis management of which the regime of the capos of Algiers can boast of being a champion, is added to the story. Results, gigantic forest fires affect 14 departments of Algeria for several days with their trails of dramas and tragedies.
The poor management of the senile regime in Algiers is illustrated by the fact that, lastly, it renounced an agreement to purchase American fire-fighting water bomber planes (produced in Spain) hi Thierry, because of the diplomatic crisis that has persisted for several months between the two countries, following the change in Madrid on the question of the Moroccan Sahara.
Worse still, the planes were ready for delivery in July. According to the specialized site Mena Défense, the Algerian authorities refrained at the last minute from buying firefighting planes from the Spanish company “Plysa”, a specialized subsidiary of the airline Air Nostrum, for the supply of bomber planes. of water. The Algiers regime preferred to charter the Beriev B-200 from Russia (3-month rental), a few days after the first deadly fires that were recorded in Skikda, Sétif and Mostaganem which claimed the lives of five people. A year ago, it is sad to recall, more than a hundred people died in gigantic fires and 100,000 ha went up in smoke in Kabylie and the north of the country.
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