Algiers: All forest fires in Algeria have been extinguished, the emergency services said Wednesday, ending over a week of deadly blazes that left at least 90 people dead.
“No forest fire was recorded” on Wednesday morning, the emergency services in the North African nation said.
Fires broke out on August 9, and at one point dozens were raging in multiple sites across northern Algeria, burning tens of thousands of hectares of forest.
The government has blamed arsonists and a blistering heatwave for the blazes, and authorities have arrested 22 suspects.
Police have also arrested 61 people over the lynching of a man falsely accused of arson, an incident that sparked outrage. The mob also set the victim on fire.
Authorities have appeared to point the finger for the incident and the blazes at the independence movement of the hard-hit mainly Berber region of Kabylie, which extends along the Mediterranean coast east of the capital Algiers.
The Movement for Self-determination of Kabylie (MAK), which Algiers classifies as a “terrorist organization,” has rejected the accusations.
Algeria is Africa’s biggest country by surface area, and although much of the interior is desert, the north has over four million hectares (10 million acres) of forest, which is hit every summer by fires.
Critics say the authorities failed to prepare for the blazes.
Algeria’s army mobilized five helicopters and its emergency services three water-bombing helicopters to fight the flames, with firefighting aircraft also coming to help from Europe.
Algeria has since decided to buy four firefighting planes.
Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that man-made global warming will bring higher temperatures and more extreme weather events across the world.
Algeria forest fires extinguished: emergency services
https://arab.news/n6eam
Algeria forest fires extinguished: emergency services
- "No forest fire was recorded" on Wednesday morning, Algeria’s emergency services said
- Government has blamed arsonists and a blistering heatwave for the blazes as 22 suspects were arrested
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
