Wildfires in Algeria that already have killed at least 69 people burned through the mountainous Berber region as the North African country contended Thursday with a heat wave like the ones fueling fires in Southern Europe.
Two French water-dropping airplanes joined the effort to tame the fires in the Kabylie region after Algeria appealed Wednesday to the European Union Civil Protection framework for help. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Thursday afternoon that the two planes had arrived in Algeria.
Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane visited Tizi Ouzou, the regional capital of Kabylie, and said that authorities believe that the blazes started from illegal activity. The victims of the fires include at least 28 soldiers who were deployed to fight the fires, according to authorities.
“We have formal, scientific evidence that these fires are of criminal origin, but for the moment, the most important is to extinguish them and above all, to take care of the population,” the prime minister said.
He also praised the Algerian people’s “solidarity” toward Kabylie and said President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was committed to providing financial aid to families affected by the fires.
Tebboune declared a three-day mourning period for the fire victims starting Thursday.
Like southern Europe, North Africa has been sweltering under searing temperatures. Temperatures hit 50 C (122 F) in Tunisia, a record high for the country. The last previous high was 48.2 C (nearly 119 F) in 1968.
Algeria’s National Meteorology Office said extremely hot weather was forecast through Thursday in nearly a dozen wilayas, or regions, including around Tizi-Ouzou. In some places, the temperature was expected to hit 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 F).
While Algerian officials suspect specific criminal acts fueled this week’s fires in Kabylie, climate scientists say there’s little doubt climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving extreme events such as heat waves, droughts and wildfires, which they say are likely to happen more frequently as Earth warms.
