At Least 12 Killed As Wildfires Rage Across Northern Algeria

Wildfires have torn through large parts of northern Algeria, leaving at least 12 people dead and dozens more injured, as the country’s civil protection authorities battle dozens of separate blazes along the northern coastline.

Interior Minister Said Sayoud said on Wednesday night that at least 54 people had suffered burn injuries, six of them in intensive care. He gave a province-by-province breakdown of the fatalities: five deaths in Jijel, four in Bejaia and three in Tizi Ouzou. Sayoud has since travelled to Bejaia alongside Health Minister Mohamed Seddik Ait Messaoudene to review firefighting and evacuation efforts on the ground.

Authorities and local media report that many homes in Bejaia and Jijel have been evacuated, with local broadcaster Jijel News airing footage of residents sheltering from thick smoke inside a post office. Firefighters were reportedly tackling 69 active blazes nationwide as of Wednesday evening.

The disaster comes as a severe heatwave grips North Africa, hitting Algeria and Tunisia especially hard. It also echoes a similar tragedy three years ago, when wildfires devastated forest and farmland in the Bejaia region and killed 30 people. Just last month, authorities recorded six fire-related deaths as crews fought more than 2,000 blazes across the country in July alone.

While wildfires are a recurring summer hazard in Algeria, experts say climate change is intensifying their scale and severity. The World Meteorological Organization notes that North Africa has become the fastest-warming subregion on the continent, with temperatures climbing 0.43°C per decade between 1991 and 2025. The same warming trend has also been linked to a rise in camel deaths during summer heatwaves, according to a recent study.