Villagers gather as smoke billows from a fire in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of Algiers
ALGIERS, Aug 15 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Firefighters made headway against wildfires that have raged across northern Algeria for days but, as nationwide prayers were held for the dead, anger grew that the country was so ill-prepared.
Fire crews backed by army engineers and civilian volunteers were still battling 51 wildfires across 16 provinces, emergency services said, but only three in the worst-hit province of Tizi Ouzou.
Blazes were still burning in some areas, including Bejaia, another province of the mainly Berber Kabylie region that extends along the Mediterranean coast east of the capital Algiers, and El Taref, a sparsely populated province that borders Tunisia.
At least 71 people have died since Monday, according to the latest official toll. Authorities have said many of the fires were of “criminal origin”.
In Tizi Ouzou province, where entire villages have been destroyed and terraced orchards reduced to charred timber and ash there was incredulity that a seasonal phenomenon had become such a deadly disaster.
“In Larbaa Nath Irathen, the epicentre of the fires in Kabylie, the experts have only managed to identify 19 of the 25 charred bodies they recovered,” the vice president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, Said Salhi, said.
“Families are left still searching for their loved ones — that just piles pain on pain.”
Larbaa Nath Irathen serves as the market centre for some two dozen villages deep in the Kabylie mountains that were renowned for their scenery. All have been destroyed or blighted by the fires.
Many rural districts of Tizi Ouzou have been left without power, gas or telephone lines.
A family of five was killed when a petrol station in the village of Ain el-Hammam blew up, prompting other stations across the region to switch off their pumps and leaving motorists struggling to find fuel.
The North African country was observing the second day of national mourning for those killed in the fires, with prayers held at mosques after the weekly Friday services.
Seasonal wildfires are nothing new in Algeria. But this time high winds fuelled the rapid spread of flames in tinder-dry conditions created by a heatwave across North Africa and the wider Mediterranean.
Meteorologists expect the regional heatwave to continue until the end of the week, after temperatures in Algeria reached 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
France and other countries have offered support, including firefighting aircraft.
The death toll from this year’s fires in Algeria — far higher than all other Mediterranean countries combined — has sparked growing criticism of successive governments’ failure to invest in fire prevention and control. — NNN-AGENCIES
