00:00Firefighters in Algeria continue to battle the flames ravaging the mountainside in northeastern
00:06Djigel.
00:07The death toll from these recent wildfires has risen to 12, with dozens more injured.
00:14On Thursday, President Abdelmajid Tebbun declared three days of national mourning in memory
00:21of the victims.
00:22Out of more than 190 fires recorded over the previous 24 hours, 46 were still burning,
00:30the country's civil protection said on Thursday.
00:34Forest fires in northern Algeria are a normal occurrence during the summer.
00:40But climate change is amplifying their impact through increasingly frequent droughts and
00:46intense heat.
00:47More than 30 people were killed in July 2023, when fires tore through thousands of hectares
00:55of forests and farmland in the area around Bejaya.
00:59Nearly 2,000 fires were recorded nationwide in July of this year.
