Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday (August 23rd) that he has decided to deploy the army to fight the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

By decree, the right-wing president has authorized from Saturday and for a period of one month the governors of the states concerned to resort to the army for "identifying and fighting against fires", as well as for "preventive and repressive actions against environmental crimes".

Speaking in a televised address, he said he considers that the record for the number of fires this year in the Amazon was due to an unusual drought.

The government will fight the "environmental crime" in the same way that it fights ordinary crime, he said. Jair Bolsonaro, however, said a wave of "false information" about the situation in the Amazon does not "help" solve the problem.

>> Read: The Amazon burns, Bolsonaro firefighter-pyromaniac

In the wake, Donald Trump said Friday to have spoken with Jair Bolsonaro and have proposed US aid to fight against these forest fires. "I told him that the United States could help with the wildfire situation in the Amazon rainforest, we stand ready to help!", The US president wrote on Twitter.

Just spoke with President @JairBolsonaro of Brazil. Our future Trade prospects are very exciting, and stronger than ever before. I told him the Amazon Rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

After first considering the fires as natural and then accusing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of having lit them, Jair Bolsonaro organized an inter-ministerial meeting on Friday to discuss the measures to be taken.

According to government data, fires in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest, which accounts for more than half of this vast tropical ensemble, have increased by 83% this year and have destroyed vast areas of this important lung of the planet.

Although fires are frequent and natural during the dry season at this time of the year, environmental activists have blamed the increase on farmers' clearing, tacitly encouraged by the far-right president.

With AFP and Reuters