President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has called for the death penalty to be reinstated for anyone convicted of intentionally setting forest fires, following a brutal series of wildfires that killed at least twelve people.
The president ordered the justice ministry to rewrite criminal law to make arson a capital offence. Algeria’s penal code already contains death penalty for a handful of crimes, but no execution has taken place since 1993.
More than 100 wildfires erupted in the north‑east weeks ago, most of them extinguished, but the devastation was widespread. The blazes swept through large swathes of northern Algeria, destroying homes, killing livestock, injuring dozens and displacing thousands.
Tebboune said he was not ruling out foul play, and investigations would be launched to determine the causes of the fires, especially given the intense heatwave that has gripped the region.
The president set a deadline of 15 September for the amendment of laws to include the death sentence for arsonists. Under the current law, deliberate fire setting could bring up to thirty years in prison or, in extreme cases, life imprisonment.
Civil authorities were still battling fires on Sunday, and 18 out of 19 new fires in the previous 24 hours had been extinguished by the Algerian Press Service.
Families of those affected will receive compensation, and the government pledged to repair damaged homes and restore essential services.
While Algeria regularly faces summer wildfires, climate change is intensifying the severity and frequency of such blazes, increasing pressure on the country’s emergency services and legal framework.
