22 arrested for allegedly causing Algeria forest fires

Volunteers attempt to put out a fire in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the Algerian capital Algiers, on 12 August 2021. [RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images]

Twenty-two people have been arrested in Algeria after being suspected of causing the wildfires that have killed 65 people, the president revealed yesterday.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune explained that some of the wildfires were a result of the unusually high temperatures, but most were the work of criminals.

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.

READ: Morocco offers to help Algeria tackle forest fires

Two firefighting airplanes will arrive from Spain today, he added.

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