Wildfires in northern Algeria have killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more.
Interior Minister, Said Sayoud said on Wednesday nite that 54 people had been injured with burns, six of them in intensive care.
Civil protection authorities said dozens of fires tore through several provinces along the country’s northern coast.
Sayoud said five people were killed in Jijel province, four in Bejaia and three in Tizi Ouzou.
Sayoud went with Algerian Health Minister Mohamed Messaoudene to Bejaia to “assess” the local firefighting and evacuation efforts.
The deaths come as northern Africa suffers a scorching heatwave, with Tunisia and Algeria particularly affected.
Many homes in Bejaia and Jijel have been evacuated, civil protection agency and local media say.
Firefighters were fighting 69 fires across the country, the civil protection agency said earlier Wednesday evening.
Three years ago, fires swept through forest and farmland in the Bejaia region, killing 30 people.
In July alone, crews battled more than 2,000 blazes across Algeria, with officials reporting at least six deaths last month.
Although Algeria frequently encounters forest fires near the summer months, climate change has exacerbated and aggravated recent wildfires in the country.
Extreme heat is now the norm in North Africa, one of six subregions of Africa (the other five are Central, East, West, Southern and the whole continent) which has experienced the fastest warming of 0.43C per decade from 1991 to 2025, said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
A recent study has shown that rising heat and water shortages have resulted in an increase in camel deaths during summer heatwaves in Algeria.