Algeria Pushes Death Penalty for Arson as Wildfire Toll Dispute Widens Between State and Independent Media

Algeria is still putting out wildfires that started at the end of August, and the government's own death toll doesn't match what independent reporters are finding.

The Interior Ministry says 12 people died. Investigative journalist Nozha Khelalef has been compiling names from family death notices and local officials for the independent outlet Twala. Her tally: 200, according to the BBC. That represents a government claim of a death toll seventeen times smaller than what an independent journalist has documented by name.

What actually burned

More than 100 wildfires broke out across Algeria's northeast in the last week of August, according to the BBC. Algeria's civil protection service recorded 154 separate fires in a single day, 36 of them in Bejaia province alone, The National News reported.

Jijel province, a coastal region known for its beaches and cedar forests 200 kilometers east of Algiers, took the worst hit. The Associated Press reported that 1,200 square kilometers of forest there were reduced to ash and stumps, nothing left standing.

Lt. Djabri Said, a 40-year Civil Protection veteran, told the AP: "We have dealt with fires, but this is the first time we have faced such a human, environmental, and material catastrophe. There are hundreds of dead."

Fifty-four people were injured, six of them critical, Interior Minister Said Sayoud said, according to The National News. Fatalities broke down as five in Jijel, four in Bejaia, three in Tizi Ouzou by the ministry's count. Abdelwahab Boukrouh, a journalist who works for the presidency's own communications office, posted on Facebook that his family alone lost 12 members in one village, Ouled Riyah, in a single night, the AP and Independent both reported. Thousands of livestock burned alive in the hills. Homes were flattened to piles of ash.

Why the numbers don't match

Algeria's private and public media are all state-controlled, and per the AP, they've stuck to the 12-death figure while focusing coverage on ministers visiting affected areas and government aid convoys. Khelalef's independent count of 200 hasn't been verified by any government body, and it's built from death notices and local sources rather than an official audit. It's a serious, documented tally, not a rumor, but it is not confirmed government data either. Both numbers should be reported as what they are: an official figure from a government with an obvious interest in minimizing the scale of the disaster, and an independent count that hasn't been officially verified.

The death penalty push

Tebboune, who cut short his vacation to visit burn victims in Algiers hospitals, ordered Justice Minister officials to draft an amendment introducing capital punishment for anyone convicted of deliberately starting forest fires, with a September 15 deadline, according to Anadolu Agency and the BBC.

Algeria has kept the death penalty on its books for several crimes but hasn't executed anyone since 1993, per Anadolu. Under current law, deliberate arson carries up to 30 years or life in prison. State television said any death sentence would only be carried out after all appeals are exhausted, Anadolu reported.

Tebboune has a real reason to suspect this wasn't just bad luck and a heatwave. "We saw videos and noticed that a number of fires broke out at the same time, at around 1 am, which raises many questions," he said, according to Anadolu. The National News quoted him making a similar point: fires igniting simultaneously with no wind isn't normal fire behavior. Arrests have already been made, he said. Coordinated ignition points at 1 a.m. with no wind is the kind of detail investigators use to build arson cases anywhere in the world. Whether Algerian authorities can actually prove intentional arson in specific cases, and whether a moratorium-breaking execution ever gets carried out, are separate questions nobody has answered yet.

Tebboune also ordered compensation for affected families, three days of national mourning, and declared Jijel a disaster zone. He set a deadline of the following Saturday to restore electricity, gas, water and telecom service, and said normal life should resume within a week, according to The National News and Anadolu.

The fires broke out during an intense heatwave hitting North Africa, with Tunisia also affected, the BBC reported. Algeria sees wildfires most summers, but officials and outside observers agree this season's fires burned hotter and faster than usual.

Algeria's justice minister has until September 15 to deliver the promised penal code amendment. Whether Khelalef's independent death count of 200 ever gets acknowledged by Algiers, or whether the government keeps its official number at 12, remains an open question.