Fri 13 August 2021:
Twenty-two people have been arrested in Algeria after being suspected of causing the wildfires that have killed 65 people, the president revealed yesterday.
At least 28 soldiers were among the dead as the North African country deployed the army to help firefighters contain blazes that ravaged houses in forested areas.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune explained that some of the wildfires were a result of the unusually high temperatures, but most were the work of criminals.
“Some fires have been caused by high temperatures but criminal hands were behind most of them,” President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said in a live speech on state television on Thursday.
“We have arrested 22 suspects, including 11 in Tizi Ouzou. Justice will perform its duty.”
Though the government had requested European countries allow it to rent firefighting helicopters, its calls were not answered immediately, Tebboune explained, because the equipment had been stationed in Greece and Turkey to extinguish the fires that had spread there.
Two firefighting airplanes will arrive from Spain today, he added.
Tebboune said a “solidarity fund” will provide some financial aid to families affected by the fires, which have destroyed homes, olive groves and animals that provide livelihoods in the region.
Extremely hot weather is expected in almost a dozen places across Algeria, including Tizi Ouzou, according to the National Meteorological Office. Temperatures were anticipated to reach 47°C in some areas (116.6 F.)
Climate scientists say there’s little doubt that carbon emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas are fueling severe events like heat waves, droughts, and wildfires, which will become more often as the planet heats.
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