Driven by international leaders, Jair Bolsonaro took concrete steps Sunday to fight the fires ravaging the Amazon for several days.

Under international pressure, Brazil has come into action. On Sunday, two C-130 Hercules planes dropped tens of thousands of gallons of water over the Amazon rainforest, which has been ravaged by fires for several days.

American aid offer

Demonstrations were planned in various Brazilian cities, such as Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte (south-east) in defense of the "lung of the planet" after those of Friday in Europe, while the G7 countries announced aid to the Amazon "as soon as possible". President Jair Bolsonaro, who had received an offer of help from the American ally, thanked in a tweet late in the morning "dozens of heads of state who (..) will help us overcome the crisis that interests only those who want to weaken Brazil ".

First concrete action taken by the Brazilian government, therefore: these two C-130 Hercules capable of carrying 12,000 liters of water and retarding product were deployed in the morning by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), announced the Ministry of Defense . These water bombers operate at low altitude from the city of Porto Velho, in the state of Rondonia (north-west), who woke up again under a disturbing smoke cover.

The number of fires increased by 1,130 throughout Brazil in 24 hours, according to the National Institute of Space Research (INPE). The latest figures on Saturday night show 79,513 forest fires since the beginning of the year in Brazil, including just over half in the Amazon.

43,000 troops deployed and funds unlocked

Regions of Rondonia, border state of Bolivia, are experiencing uncontrollable fires that send columns of fumes into the sky and huge amounts of carbon, AFP journalists said. So far, seven states, including Rondonia, have appealed to the army. Some 43,000 Amazon-based soldiers are available to fight fires, said Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva. The governors of the affected states have urgently requested "material support" from Jair Bolsonaro who accused them this week of "connivance" with the authors of "arson".

The government finally released emergency funds of 38 million reais (8.2 million euros) for fire-fighting operations carried out by the Ministry of Defense. The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sergio Moro, has given the green light to the deployment of police officers against illegal deforestation in the Amazon. Because it is the correlation of the dry season and deforestation, accelerated under the government of Jair Bolsonaro, which encourages crops and cattle breeding in the largest tropical forest on the planet, which explains the magnitude of these fires.