On Friday, the Moroccan authorities announced the killing of one person, the evacuation of 1,300 families, in addition to about 225 people and the ambulance of 420 others, as a result of forest fires that have been going on for three days in the governorates of Larache, Chefchaouen, Tetouan, Ouazzane and Taza in the north of the country.

The Moroccan Ministry of the Interior also said that the fires had destroyed more than 1,000 hectares of forest and had managed to control the fires in some areas.

The ministry announced the outbreak of a new fire in the "Achcha Tassift" forest in the Chefchaouen province, where the intervention teams rushed to isolate and surround the hotspots and prevent their transmission to large areas of forests.

According to the ministry, the fires "affected 1,250 hectares, which constitutes half of the forests in the Larache province."

Moroccan authorities used planes to try to contain the fires (Anatolia)

evacuation and losses

According to the Ministry of the Interior, 225 people were also evacuated due to the fire of the Beni Ydir forest in the Tetouan province, where the fires affected 70 houses, 60 of them completely, and caused the death of 90 head of cattle.

With regard to the fire of the "Bab Azhar" forest in the province of Taza, the area burned until Friday - according to the ministry - 400 hectares, noting that "420 people were evacuated and treated from 8 villages, with no casualties recorded."

It is noteworthy that Morocco witnesses annually fires in the forests, which cover about 12% of the total area of ​​the country, and in the palm oases (southeast).

Since the beginning of this year and until July 13, the country witnessed about 165 fires, and the area affected by this year's fires is estimated at about 1,800 hectares, according to official data.

The local authorities reported that field operations to extinguish the fires, which broke out in the forests of Beni Yusef Al Serif and Sahel Al Manzala and Al Mbeka, in the Larache province, are still ongoing.


Morocco #Morocco #Moroccan #fires_Morocco #fires pic.twitter.com/jyJMMv4Zci

- Al-Atabi HD (@jawa22jawa) July 15, 2022

# Forest fires in northern # Morocco pic.twitter.com/uU2F3ZRcaY

— @mohamedouabi (@mohamedouabi) July 15, 2022

Huge fires are sweeping forests and villages in northern Morocco, coinciding with European forest fires in Portugal, France and Spain 🔥# Fires # Morocco # Spain # Portugal # France pic.twitter.com/cDh7SM2W96

— Hamza Leon Hamza Leon (@Hamza_Leon7) July 15, 2022