Firefighters attempt to put out a fire near a hospital in Ain al-Hammam village
(Picture: REUTERS)At least 42 people including 25 soldiers have died in wildfires ravaging mountain forests and villages in the east of Algeria’s capital.
Dozens of blazes started in the Kabyle region on Monday with Algerian authorities sending in the army to help citizens battle the fires and evacuate.
The 25 soldiers, who have been described as “martyrs” by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune died after rescuing local villagers. The group saved 100 people from the fires in two areas of Kabyle but 17 civilians died.
Eleven other soldiers were left with burns, the Defense Ministry said.
Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane later told the state television network that initial reports from security services showed the fires in Kabyle were “highly synchronized,” adding that “leads one to believe these were criminal acts.”
He provided no further details.
The President, however, took to Twitter to share his “condolences to all the families of the martyrs”.
He said: “With great sadness and sorrow, I received the news of the martyrdom of 25 members of the People’s National Army, after they succeeded in rescuing more than one hundred citizens from the blazing fires, in the mountains of Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou.”
The Kabyle region, 100 kilometres east of Algeria’s capital of Algiers, is dotted with difficult-to-access villages.
Some villagers were fleeing, while others tried to hold back the flames themselves, using buckets, branches and rudimentary tools. The region has no water-dumping planes.
A photo pictured on the site of the Liberte daily showed a soldier with a shovel dousing sputtering flames with dirt, his automatic weapon slung over his shoulder.
