Wildfire rips through Algeria, killing 42 people, including soldiers in the Kabylie region
Several more soldiers were injured fighting the fires in the forested Kabylie region. Temperatures of up to 46C were forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday. Fires have caused devastation in several Mediterranean countries, including Turkey, Greece, Lebanon and Cyprus.
Climate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires. The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began, and temperatures will keep rising unless governments worldwide make steep cuts to emissions.
On Tuesday evening, more than 100 fires have been reported across 17 Algerian provinces, the country's official news agency said.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune paid tribute to the soldiers who were killed, tweeting that they had succeeded in rescuing more than 100 people from the mountains of Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou. Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud said that about 50 of the blazes were "of criminal origin".
Earlier this week, a major UN scientific report found that human activity changed the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways.
The landmark study warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit is broken in just over a decade. Still, scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast.
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