MADRID: Firefighters battled a wildfire Wednesday near the southern Spanish tourist town of Tarifa, where more than 1,500 people had to be evacuated as shifting winds hampered efforts to control the blaze.
Although fire crews managed to secure areas near hotels and tourist accommodation, the fire remained active and uncontained, said officials.
“What concerns us most right now is the wind — whether it shifts between the west and east,” said Antonio Sanz, interior minister for Andalusia’s regional government.
The wildfire broke out Tuesday afternoon near La Pena, a wooded area close to a beach just outside Tarifa. The town of about 19,000 residents on Spain’s southernmost coast, is known for its strong winds, which draw kite- and windsurfers.
Spanish public broadcaster TVE reported that the fire had started in a camper van at a local campsite, with strong winds spreading the blaze quickly.
The fire forced the evacuation of 1,550 people from campsites, hotels, and homes, as well as about 5,000 vehicles, mostly belonging to beachgoers, said Sanz.
Emergency crews worked overnight to prevent the fire from reaching coastal resorts, but residents and tourists evacuated have not yet been allowed to return, he added.
Spain is currently experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius in many regions.
Civil protection authorities have warned that wildfire risk remains “very high” or “extreme” across much of the country.
Wildfire forces evacuations in Spanish tourist town
https://arab.news/mgzcz
Wildfire forces evacuations in Spanish tourist town
- Spanish public broadcaster TVE reported that the fire had started in a camper van at a local campsite, with strong winds spreading the blaze quickly
UN envoy hopeful on Cyprus, says multi-party summit premature
- Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman
- “While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning”
NICOSIA: The key UN envoy seeking to break a deadlock in Cyprus’s long-running division said she was cautiously optimistic about a breakthrough but that it would be premature to convene a multi-nation summit on the conflict.
In an interview with Cyprus’s Phileleftheros daily, envoy Maria Angela Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on December 11. She said their discussion, which agreed to focus also on confidence-building, was “deep, sincere and very straightforward.”
“While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning. More will need to be done in order to strengthen the nascent momentum and establish a real climate of trust that would allow the Secretary-General to convene a 5+1 informal meeting,” said Holguin, a former Colombian foreign minister.
A 5+1 meeting would be an informal summit of the two Cypriot communities with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and representatives of Britain, Turkiye and Greece to define how to move forward and break a seven-year stalemate in peace talks. The three NATO nations are guarantor powers of Cyprus under a treaty which granted the island independence from Britain in 1960.
A power-sharing administration of Cypriot Greeks and Turks crumbled in 1963. Turkiye invaded the north of the island in 1974 after a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The island has been split on ethnic lines ever since.
Turkish Cypriots live in a breakaway state in the north, while Greek Cypriots in the south run an internationally recognized administration representing the whole island in the European Union.
