Algeria rents 2 EU helicopters to help fight wildfires

A helicopter releases water to help put out a wildfire in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the Algerian capital Algiers, on 11 August 2021. [RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images]

Algeria yesterday rented two helicopters from the European Union to help fight the wildfires tearing through its forest in the north of the country, the government said yesterday.

The government said in a statement that “the two helicopters have recently helped fight fires that had broken out in Greece.”

As of Wednesday, at least 65 people were killed by the fires.

The Attorney General of Tizi-Ouzou, Abdelkader Amirouche, told reporters that hundreds of people have been affected by the fires, adding that they were started “deliberately” by “parties that do not wish good to the country”.

Meanwhile, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared three days of national mourning as of today.

Official: 273 blazes contained, 2 ongoing in southwestern Turkey

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.