UAE offers condolences over wildfire deaths in Algeria

The UAE has expressed its sincere condolences and solidarity with the Algeria over the devastating wildfires resulted in numerous deaths and injuries.

At least 34 people, including 10 soldiers, were killed in the fires as they raged through residential areas, the Algerian interior ministry said, revising an earlier toll of 15 dead.

In a statement on Tuesday, the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the Algerian government and people, especially the families of the victims who died in the tragedy.

Some 1,500 people were evacuated from the Bejaia, Bouira and Jijel provinces east of the capital Algiers, according to the ministry. The three provinces in Algeria's Mediterranean coastal region have seen the worst of the fires.

The interior ministry said that 7,500 firefighters and 350 firetrucks were mobilised with aerial support to fight the flames.

Operations were underway to extinguish fires in six provinces, it added, calling on citizens to "avoid areas affected by the fires" and to report new blazes on toll-free phone numbers.

Fires regularly rage through forests and fields in Algeria in summer, and this year have been exacerbated by a heatwave that has seen several Mediterranean countries break temperature records.

In neighbouring Tunisia, temperatures on Monday neared 50 degrees Celsius.

Tunisia's state energy supplier STEG announced planned half-hour to one-hour power cuts in a bid to preserve the network's performance.

Fires raged again on Monday in a Tunisian pine forest near the border with Algeria, after another blaze in the area last week.

At least 300 people were evacuated by sea and by land from the village of Melloula, according to the national guard.

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