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Wildfires which killed at least 38 people across northern Algeria have been largely contained, firefighters said Friday, but new blazes forced further evacuations and the closure of some roads near the Tunisian border.

Fierce fires have become an annual fixture in Algeria’s parched forests where climate change is exacerbating a long-running drought.

“We are currently fighting 11 fires,” the civil defence’s Colonel Boualem Boughlef told an evening news broadcast.

He said more than 1,000 families had been evacuated since Wednesday.

Fire service spokesman Colonel Farouk Achour said on Friday morning that all the fires had been “completely brought under control”, but the service later tweeted that fires were burning in the far northeastern regions of El Tarf and Skikda.

State television showed images of an army firefighting aircraft over El Tarf, and police said several highways in the area had been closed.

Images on social media showed people evacuating homes near a forest blaze in the El Kala area, which had seen devastating fires on Thursday.

El Tarf residents were counting their losses, including the charred remains of farm animals burned alive as flames swept through the area.

The fire “didn’t spare anything”, said one farmer, Hamdi Gemidi, 40, who walked in rubber sandals on the ash-covered earth where the carcasses of what appeared to be sheep lay.

“This is our livelihood… We have nowhere to go and nothing to make a living from.”

Ghazala, 81, said she had been rescued along with a few animals after flames came dangerously close to her house.

“I don’t know where to go now. Should I stay in the fields, forests or mountains?” she asked, on the verge of tears. 

“I really don’t know where I should go.”

– ‘Arsonists’ arrested –

Since the beginning of June, some 1,240 blazes have destroyed 5,345 hectares (13,200 acres) of forests and other woodland, Colonel Boughlef said.

The justice ministry launched an inquiry after Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud suggested some of this year’s blazes were started deliberately, and authorities on Thursday announced four arrests of suspected arsonists.

If found guilty, they could face between 10 years and life in jail.

But officials have also been accused of a lack of preparation, with few firefighting aircraft available despite record casualties in last year’s blazes and a cash windfall from gas exports with global energy prices soaring.

Authorities said they deployed more than 1,700 firefighters over Wednesday and Thursday.

The dead included more than 10 children and a similar number of firefighters, according to multiple sources including local journalists and the fire service.

Most were in the El Tarf region near Algeria’s eastern border with Tunisia, an area which was sweltering earlier this week in 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) heat.

Algerians both at home and in the diaspora have mobilised to collect clothing, medicines and food to help those affected. 

Late on Thursday, dozens of trucks carrying humanitarian aid from various cities arrived in El Tarf, regional authorities said.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also offered support to Algerians “hard-hit by the terrible fires”. 

“The EU stands by your side in these difficult times,” he tweeted.

– Burned to death –

Twelve people burned to death in their bus as they tried to escape when fire ripped through an animal park, a witness who asked not to be named said.

When “nobody came to help us, neither the fire service nor anyone else,” park staff assisted families with young children to escape as flames encroached on the area, Takeddine, a worker at the park, told AFP. 

Fires last year killed at least 90 people and seared 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of forest and farmland in the country’s north.

Experts have called for a major effort to bolster the firefighting capacity of Algeria, which has more than four million hectares of forest.

Algeria had agreed to buy seven firefighting aircraft from Spanish firm Plysa, but cancelled the contract following a diplomatic row over the Western Sahara in late June, according to specialist website Mena Defense.

Spain, too, has this year battled hundreds of wildfires following punishing heatwaves and long dry spells.

On Thursday, Algeria’s Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane defended the response, adding the government had ordered four new firefighting aircraft but that they would not be available until December.

The prime minister added that strong winds had exacerbated the fires and authorities deployed “all their means” to extinguish them.

A major wildfire in eastern Spain that has destroyed vast swathes of land flared up again Friday despite heavy rainfall, threatening to spread to a nearby natural park, officials said.

So far this year, Spain has suffered nearly 400 wildfires following punishing heatwaves and long dry spells that have devastated more than 283,000 hectares of land, more than three times the total area destroyed in 2021. 

Over the past week, hundreds of firefighters have been battling two major wildfires raging out of control in the Valencia region, with a bout of heavy rainfall offered some respite, almost totally extinguishing the flames. 

Although it put an end to the Vall d’Ebo fire near Benidorm, the Bejis blaze some 70 kilometres (45 miles) northwest of Valencia city flared up again and burning its way towards the Sierra Calderona natural park.

It has already destroyed 19,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of land. 

“The fire advanced slowly during the night except in… areas to the southeast where it has raged more aggressively,” the emergency services tweeted. 

Fire officials said 40 aerial firefighting teams were trying to contain the blaze after what the UME military firefighters said had been an “intense night”.

“It’s a very big fire with a perimeter stretching more than 120 kilometres,” Mariano Hernandez, one of the provincial fire chiefs, told public television. 

Early on Friday, a lightning bolt set off another blaze near Olocau inside the Sierra Calderona park, with residents confined to their homes as a preventative measure, the emergency services said. 

By midday, the flames appeared to have been quenched but firefighters had yet to declare it stabilised for fear it would flare up again, public television said. 

The emergency services confirmed all aerial fire teams had left the area.

– Train investigation –

Firefighters on Friday morning finally declared the Vall d’Ebo fire stabilised although they said aerial teams were still working there. 

It has burnt its way through more than 13,000 hectares of land, figures from the EU’s Copernicus satellite show. 

Over the past week, the Vall d’Ebo and Bejis wildfires have forced the evacuation of 3,000 people. 

Meanwhile, questions multiplied over how a train carrying some 50 passengers managed to run into the Bejis fire zone on Tuesday evening in incident that left around a dozen people injured, several seriously. 

The train left Valencia heading for the northern city of Zaragoza and the driver, who had not been alerted to the danger, was ultimately forced to turn the train around. 

But before setting off back up the track, passengers panicked on seeing the proximity of the flames, with footage showing people screaming in terror and calling for help as some broke the emergency windows to escape on foot.

An investigation has been opened by the police as well as by train operator RENFE and state track operator Adif, with the opposition Popular Party also demanding answers from the govenment. 

“We will provide all the information necessary to clarify this incident it never happens again,” Science Minister Diana Morant told public television, saying “the decisions taken by the train driver were the right ones”.

So far this year, Spain has been hit by nearly 400 wildfires, the latest figures from the European Forest Fire Information System show. 

Together they have destroyed 284,000 hectares of land — more than three times the area consumed by wildfires in the whole of 2021, which totalled over 84,000 hectares, the figures show.

The World Health Organization said Friday that two existing treatments dramatically reduced deaths from Ebola and should be given to people of all ages suffering from the often-fatal haemorrhagic disease. 

Publishing its first-ever guidelines on which therapeutics to use against Ebola, the UN health agency strongly recommended using two monoclonal antibodies, mAb114, also known as Ansuvimab or Ebanga, and REGN-EB3, or Inmazeb.

Studies had showed that the two treatments significantly “reduced mortality,” Janet Diaz, lead of the clinical management unit in the WHO’s Health Emergencies programme, told reporters in Geneva.

Depending on the standard of care, she said they could save between 230 and 400 lives for every 1,000 people infected.

In its guidelines, the WHO recommended against using other therapeutics that have been tested for Ebola, including monoclonal antibody ZMapp and antiviral drug remdesivir.

Ebola is an often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever that was first identified in central Africa in 1976. The disease was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire. 

The worst epidemic in West Africa between 2013 and 2016 killed more than 11,300 people. The DRC has had more than a dozen epidemics, the deadliest killing 2,280 people in 2020.

Case fatality rates for the disease, which spreads through bodily fluids and causes high fever, vomiting and bleeding, can be as high as 80-90 percent, depending on how quickly it is detected and treated.

The WHO said mAb114 and REGN-EB3 should be given swiftly to anyone who contracts the virus.

In a statement the health agency said that the two had “demonstrated clear benefits” and could be used for everyone infected by Ebola, including older people, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children and newborns.

“Patients should receive recommended neutralising monoclonal antibodies as soon as possible after laboratory confirmation of diagnosis,” it said.

The WHO cautioned though that access to both the treatments remained “challenging, especially in resource-poor areas.”

“WHO is ready to support countries, manufacturers and partners to improve access to these treatments, and to support national and global efforts to increase affordability,” the UN health agency said.

Robert Fowler of the University of Toronto, who co-chaired the guideline development group, hailed how “advances in supportive care and therapeutics over the past decade have revolutionised the treatment of Ebola.”

“Ebola virus disease used to be perceived as a near certain killer. However, that is no longer the case,” he said in the statement.

Combined with proper support, the two recommended treatments mean “recovery for the vast majority of people,” he said.