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Algeria sets up fund to help fire-ravaged provinces

July 18, 2017 at 2:39 pm

Algerian village in the province of Tizi Ouzou [Wikipedia]

Algeria has set up the Natural Disaster Fund and the Local Authority Solidarity Fund in an effort to provide emergency relief to help those affected by fires that ripped through 17 provinces last week killing one person.

Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui announced the measure yesterday in the city of Tizi Ouzou. It will include a special programme of planting and regenerating fruit trees, particularly olive trees which have been the most affected by the fires.

Forty-eight forest fires, ten of which were classified as “significant”, were recorded last week through the territories of the Tizi Ouzou province. One person died and two were wounded as a result of the fires.

The towns of Beni Aissi, Timizart, Ifigha, Makouda, Tizi Rached, Larbâa Nath Irathen Frikat, Aït Toudert and Tizi Ghenif were the most affected by the fires that ravaged through 80 hectares of bush, scrub and forests in one day.

At least 700 olive trees, 120 fruit trees and 300 boxes of hay were reduced to ashes. According to residents of the regions concerned, the means put in place to contain the fires have been insufficient, given the magnitude of the flames, according to locals.

However, authorities have said several houses and hundreds of hectares of crops and forests were saved by firefighters.

Temperatures in Tizi Ouzou reached between 45 and 52 degrees Celsius last week, this is believed to be the cause of the fires.

Assessment committees have been set up in the provinces to identify the scale of the damage to livestock and infrastructure and to report to the Interior Ministry.

Bedoui visited the village of Tarikt in Ait Yahia Moussa where he paid his respects to the family of the deceased, 64-year-old Kerouane Rabah.

Another programme to fix damaged roads is also underway, Bedoui announced.