At least 12 people have been killed and 54 others injured as wildfires tore through northeastern Algeria on Wednesday, with six of the injured in critical condition and dozens of families forced to evacuate their homes. Interior Minister Said Sayoud, who travelled to the affected region to assess the emergency response, said the deaths were recorded across three provinces east of the capital Algiers: five in Jijel, four in Bejaia and three in Tizi Ouzou. Footage shared by local broadcaster Jijel News showed residents seeking refuge inside a post office as thick clouds of smoke billowed around them, with one resident pouring a bucket of water onto burning ground in a desperate effort to protect their home.

Civil protection authorities recorded 154 fire outbreaks across the country in a single day, spreading across 16 provinces, all in the country's east. Thirty-six fires burned in the forested, hilly Bejaia province alone, though crews said they had brought roughly half under control. Three motorways in the east were closed as a precaution. Authorities deployed both aerial and ground resources to fight the blazes, and eleven people suspected of deliberately starting fires have been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention on charges including arson and acts of sabotage endangering lives and property.

The fires are being driven by a severe heatwave gripping North Africa, with Algeria and neighbouring Tunisia particularly affected. Algerian meteorological services had warned of temperatures reaching up to 49°C in some provinces on Wednesday and Thursday. Climate scientists and the World Meteorological Organization have noted that North Africa is the fastest-warming of Africa's six subregions, with temperatures rising by 0.43°C per decade between 1991 and 2025 — a trend that has made deadly seasonal wildfires more frequent and more intense.

Algeria endures recurring summer wildfires along its Mediterranean coastline, where dry forests are vulnerable to the combination of drought, heat and wind. Last month alone, at least six people were killed in fires, and crews battled nearly 2,000 blazes across the country throughout July. The country's worst recent disaster came in 2021, when fires killed around 90 people, including 25 poorly equipped soldiers — a catastrophe that drew sharp public criticism of the government's preparedness. Algeria has since invested in its own firefighting aircraft, having previously been forced to borrow planes from abroad.

The Bejaia region has been hit hard before: devastating fires killed 30 people there three years ago. Data from Algeria's civil protection service shows that the total number of fires recorded between May and late July this year reached approximately 4,000 — a 167% increase compared with the same period in 2024, underscoring the accelerating toll that climate change is taking on one of North Africa's most fire-prone nations.