Algeria’s state-run television channel “Entreprise publique de télévision” (EPTV) published Wednesday pictures of Moroccan Canadair aircraft as its own, hiding the insignia of Morocco’s Royal Air Force (FRA) to deceive public opinion.
EPTV tweeted on “X” (formerly Twitter) that Algeria has now four landing strips for helicopters and wildfire-fighting planes.
After at least 40 people, including 10 military individuals, perished in raging fires that ravaged the Kabylia region of northeastern Algeria last month, burning houses and beach resorts, and turning vast swaths of forest into a charred wasteland.
An undisclosed number of residents were injured due to burns or smoke inhalation, and over 1,500 people were evacuated as flames raged over 15 provinces.
The Kingdom of Morocco sent its heartfelt condolences for the loss of human lives caused by the blaze, as well as its wishes for the injured to recover quickly.
When fires swept across Kabylia two years ago in 2021, Morocco’s Monarch directed the deployment of two Canadair planes to Algeria to assist in combating the blazes.
The Algerian regime announced in 2021 that it had purchased water bombers from Spain to fight wildfires, but that deal fell through after the Rabat-Madrid rapprochement.
Morocco is the only African nation with a civil security apparatus boasting a fleet of six Canadair planes. The kingdom has committed to further augment its domestic arsenal of water-bombing aircraft in coming years.