ALGIERS— All forest fires in Algeria have been
extinguished, the emergency services said Wednesday, ending over a week of
deadly blazes that left at least 90 people dead.
اضافة اعلان
"No
forest fire was recorded" on Wednesday
morning, the emergency services in the North African nation said.
Fires broke out on August 9, and at one point dozens were
raging in multiple sites across northern Algeria, burning tens of thousands of
hectares of forest.
The government has blamed arsonists and a blistering
heatwave for the blazes, and authorities have arrested 22 suspects.
Police have also arrested 61 people over the lynching of a
man falsely accused of arson, an incident that sparked outrage. The mob also
set the victim on fire.
Authorities have appeared to point the finger for the
incident and the blazes at the independence movement of the hard-hit mainly
Berber region of Kabylie, which extends along the Mediterranean coast east of
the capital Algiers.
The Movement for Self-determination of Kabylie (MAK), which
Algiers classifies as a "terrorist organization", has rejected the
accusations.
Algeria is Africa's biggest country by surface area, and
although much of the interior is desert, the north has over four million
hectares (10 million acres) of forest, which is hit every summer by fires.
Critics say the authorities failed to prepare for the
blazes.
Algeria's army mobilized five helicopters and its emergency
services three water-bombing helicopters to fight the flames, with firefighting
aircraft also coming to help from Europe.
Algeria has since decided to buy four firefighting planes.
Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that man-made
global warming will bring higher temperatures and more extreme weather events
across the world.
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