Most Algeria Forest Fires ‘Under Control’

Smoke billows as a fire burns woodland by a mountain town in the Ait Daoud area of northern Algeria in this picture taken on August 13, 2021 - AFP
Smoke billows as a fire burns woodland by a mountain town in the Ait Daoud area of northern Algeria in this picture taken on August 13, 2021 - AFP
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Most Algeria Forest Fires ‘Under Control’

Smoke billows as a fire burns woodland by a mountain town in the Ait Daoud area of northern Algeria in this picture taken on August 13, 2021 - AFP
Smoke billows as a fire burns woodland by a mountain town in the Ait Daoud area of northern Algeria in this picture taken on August 13, 2021 - AFP

Most of the deadly forest fires that have hit northern Algeria in the past week are "under control" and no longer endanger residents, the country's emergency services said.

Firefighters were still struggling Sunday to put out 19 blazes, after over 90 people, including 33 soldiers, were killed in wildfires since August 9.

"Most of these fires have been brought under control and don't represent a danger to residents," said Colonel Farouk Achour, a spokesman for the civil protection authority.

The authority's efforts focus currently on the "protection of inhabited areas, notably El Tarf, Bejaia, Jijel and Tizi Ouzou, Achour said, AFP reported.

More than 74 fires had been extinguished in the past 24 hours, he added.

The government has blamed arsonists and a blistering heatwave for the dozens of blazes, but experts have also criticized authorities for failing to prepare for the annual phenomenon.

Algerian police said Sunday they had arrested 36 people including three women after the lynching of a man suspected of having started one of the deadly fires.

"A preliminary enquiry... into the homicide, lynching, immolation and mutilation... of Djamel Ben Ismail... led to the arrest of 36 suspects including three women," police chief Mohamed Chakour told reporters.

Ben Ismail, 38, had "turned himself in of his own accord" at a police station in the hard-hit Tizi Ouzou region after hearing he was suspected of involvement, he said.

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.

Last year some 44,000 hectares went up in flames.

In neighboring Morocco, firefighters worked through the night on Sunday and into Monday to bring fires under control amid unfavorable winds.

The fires have destroyed 200 hectares of forest, according to a forestry official, but no victims have been reported.



Lebanon's PM Says Country to Begin Disarming South Litani to Ensure State Presence

President Joseph Aoun met with PM Najib Mikati at Baabda palace. (NNA)
President Joseph Aoun met with PM Najib Mikati at Baabda palace. (NNA)
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Lebanon's PM Says Country to Begin Disarming South Litani to Ensure State Presence

President Joseph Aoun met with PM Najib Mikati at Baabda palace. (NNA)
President Joseph Aoun met with PM Najib Mikati at Baabda palace. (NNA)

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that the state will begin disarming southern Lebanon, particularly the south Litani region, to establish its presence across the country.
"We are in a new phase - in this new phase, we will start with south Lebanon and south Litani specifically in order to pull weapons so that the state can be present across Lebanese territory," Mikati said.

Mikati's remarks followed a meeting with newly elected President Joseph Aoun at the Baabda Presidential Palace. Aoun was elected as the country's new head of state by parliament on Thursday, ending a vacancy in the presidency that had persisted for over two years.

In his address to parliament, Aoun pledged to control weapons outside the state's control, saying the government is the sole entity authorized to possess and use military force and weapons.
A ceasefire agreement that ended the 13-month-conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in November has given the Lebanese party 60 days to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli forces are also required to withdraw from the area over the same period.
The ceasefire agreement says Israeli forces will move south of the Blue Line “in a phased manner” within 60 days. The Lebanese army’s troops will deploy “in parallel” to the positions.