Intense forest fires in north Algeria this week.
— severe-weather.EU (@severeweatherEU) August 5, 2020
Video sent to us by Ãbdø El Nor Habirech. Posted with permission. pic.twitter.com/yvXAQS0PeP
The country's forestries agency said it had recorded 1,216 fires between June 1 and August 1, destroying some 8,778 hectares, the official APS news agency reported Sunday. On Thursday, Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad set up a monitoring unit to track forest fires and efforts to prevent and control them. The blazes peaked late last month with 66 fires reported on July 27, and civil defence helicopters were called in to extinguish them, the forestry service said.
Algeria has repeatedly experienced forest fires in recent years, but the results of a 2019 enquiry that sought to establish causes were never released. A study by the geography journal Mediterranee found that a lack of forests and creeping desertification were making the fires particularly disastrous.
Source: AFP
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter