President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, addressed, yesterday evening, the Algerian people, praising the solidarity towards those affected by the forest fires, warning against attempts to exploit this ordeal to undermine national unity.
The President of the Republic said: “Once again, our beloved homeland is experiencing difficult and painful conditions at the same time due to massive fires that have affected nearly 17 provinces of our national soil, most of which are concentrated in the region of Tizi Ouzou.
On this painful occasion, I renew my heartfelt condolences to all those who died, civilians and soldiers, martyrs of duty, who were devoured by fire while fighting the catastrophe.”
Addressing these fires, which “the country has not known for decades of this magnitude”, required the recruitment of all human and material capabilities, means of transportation and firefighting across most of the provinces, so that “we focused on the most affected province of Tizi Ouzou, because the fires that broke out were in very difficult and populated places. “.
President indicated that, on the first day of the outbreak of these fires, he instructed the Prime Minister and even at the level of the Presidency to “contact all friendly European countries in order to acquire firefighting planes, as we knew that the terrain did not allow to extinguish the fires by traditional means.” Unfortunately, no country responded to our request because all European planes of this type were stationed at that time in Greece and Turkey,” which also knew the outbreak of massive fires.
After mentioning the arrival of two French planes, the President of the Republic revealed the lease of two Spanish and one Swiss planes that will arrive in Algeria within the “next three days,” which “will enable us to control these fires,” as he said.
In the same regard, the President explained that People’s National Army used “about six helicopters to extinguish the fires”, in addition to instructing the army to initiate contacts to acquire aircraft to extinguish fires.
In this regard, he said: “I have previously said that the places where the fires caught are difficult and inhabited,” as “the most important thing was to save lives.”
Mr Tebboune also paused, by the way, at the solidarity shown by Algerians in this ordeal, saying: “The only thing that consoles us and inspires us patience in this great calamity is the solidarity gift that all the citizens, whose hearts were with the residents of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia, and it is the gift that we must preserve as we preserve national unity.”
President Tebboune added, “We must all stand up to all those who want to stir up segregation between Algerians and between one region and another, which are attempts that are criminal in itself,”, adding that “victims who were martyred belong to most regions and provinces, and all Algerians rushed with all available extinguishing means.”
The President of the Republic warned against parties that “seize the opportunity to divide” to confirm that “the Algerian state is one united state and people are united from Tizi Ouzou to Tamanrasset and from Tebessa to Tlemcen, and these issues are separated and we will use all available means to stop these people who are trying to undermine national unity.”
The President of the Republic insisted that whoever tries to undermine national unity “will pay dearly, because national unity is a sacred matter for which one and a half million martyrs fell.”
Regarding the killing of a young man in Larbaa Nath Irathen, following suspicions about his involvement in the forest fires that struck the region, the President of the Republic stressed that only justice is entitled to reveal the truth, warning that “the situation should not be exploited and fall into the trap of the two terrorist organizations that are trying to enter through this door to prejudice national unity.”
