Algeria mourns more deaths as firefighters tackle wildfires

Algeria was mourning at least 90 dead on Friday as firefighters, soldiers and volunteers battled to put out the latest deadly forest fires in the North African country.

The government blamed arsonists and a scorching heat wave for dozens of fires that have raged in the north of the country since Monday, but experts also criticized authorities for not preparing for the annual phenomenon.

Algiers did not publish an overall toll for Saturday, but reports from local authorities said the fires had killed 90 people, compared to 71 the official toll the day before.

They include 33 soldiers, some of whom were honored by the Defense Ministry during a ceremony in a military hospital in the presence of the army chief Saïd Chenegriha.

“These heroes sacrificed their souls for the nation and to save their fellow citizens from arson across the country,” the ministry’s communications director, General Boualem Madi, said in a speech.

The fire department said its teams were still fighting 29 fires in 13 provinces, mostly in coastal areas east of the capital Algiers, with planes carrying out hundreds of missions to drop water on the blazes.

Nearly 7,500 firefighters, supported by French and Spanish planes as well as Russian helicopters operated by the army, succeeded in extinguishing more than 40 fires in 24 hours.

The specialist site Menadefense reported that the army planned to buy up to eight Russian firefighting planes Beriev Be-200, to start arriving in Algeria on Saturday.

Weather experts have forecast temperatures of up to 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) in the coming days, in a country already sorely lacking in water.

Algeria is the largest country in Africa by area, and although much of the interior is desert, the north of the country has over four million hectares (10 million acres) of forest, which is affected by fires every summer.

Last year, some 44,000 hectares were burnt.

The death toll from this year’s fires in Algeria – far higher than all other Mediterranean countries combined – has sparked growing criticism of successive governments’ failure to invest in fire prevention and control.