Algerian firefighters managed Thursday night to control most of the fires that have killed at least 38 people since Wednesday, including several families trapped on a bus near a zoo.
There were still “16 active outbreaks in 7 wilayas (prefectures) at 4:00 p.m. local time,” said Colonel Farouk Achour, of civil protection, while assuring that the fires in the most affected areas of “El Tarf and Souk Ahras” are under control. “
The provisional figure remains at 38 dead with 30 victims, including 11 children and 6 women in El Tarf, in the far east, near the Tunisian border. The others were registered in Souk Ahras and Guelma (east) and Sétif (north), according to civil protection and local media, which also reported more than 200 injuries, including 10 firefighters.
“The forest is weakened”
Algeria recently canceled a contract to charter seven water pumps to a Spanish company, after a diplomatic row with Madrid over the Western Sahara issue.
Deploring the absence of a “national fire-extinguishing device”, one expert reminded AFP of its existence in the 1980s, when Algeria had “22 Grumman-type devices” that “were sold for the token dinar without any solution being offered. alternative”.
On social media, academic Rafik Baba-Ahmed also pointed out the poor management of forested areas invaded by human activities. “Today the forest is weakened, nibbled.”
Algeria, the largest country in Africa, has a limited forest area of 4.1 million hectares, with a meager reforestation rate of 1.76%.
Source: BFM TV
