Kabylie, hostage to flames and silence

For the fifth consecutive year, Kabylie is facing a wave of forest fires ravaging its villages, olive groves, and wooded massifs. This new fire season revives a debate as fierce as it is painful: Is it simply climate fatalism aggravated by recurring heatwaves, or, as claimed by independentist leader Ferhat Mehenni, an instrument of deliberate repression? Both interpretations clash, with no independent proof currently available to settle the matter.

Around a hundred simultaneous fire outbreaks

Since July 16, 2026, Kabylie as well as several wilayas in northern Algeria have once again been hit by forest fires, fueled by a heatwave and sustained winds. The Directorate-General of Civil Protection has recorded several dozen active fire outbreaks simultaneously, mobilizing significant ground and aerial resources, including AT-802 water bombers and helicopters, particularly around Bgayet (Sidi Boudraham, Akfadou, Ouzellaguene, Aokas) and Tizi Ouzou. The previous day, July 12, about a hundred fire outbreaks had already been counted across the Kabyle region, with critical situations in Tizi Ouzou, Bgayet, and Tubiret, notably around the village of Aït Helli, in the Larbaâ Nath Irathen daïra, which was encircled by flames.

These episodes are part of a dark streak affecting the region every summer since 2021, a year when more than 90 people died in the deadliest fires in decades. Heavy death tolls were also recorded in 2022 (37 dead around El Tarf) and 2023 (at least 34 dead, notably in Bgayet). The Algerian authorities attribute these recurring fires to a combination of extreme heatwaves, violent winds, rugged terrain that complicates rescue access, and Mediterranean vegetation that is particularly flammable in summer.

Ferhat Mehenni’s statement

In a statement released this week, Ferhat Mehenni, president of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK) and of the Kabyle government in exile (Anavad)—which in December 2025 in Paris proclaimed the birth of a “federal, secular, and democratic Republic of Kabylie”—asserts that these fires are not accidental. According to him, they are planned by the Algerian Ministry of Defense and executed by its services, with the aim of punishing Kabylie for its aspiration for independence.

He argues that the Algerian authorities had, as of May 16, banned Kabyles from accessing forest massifs and mountain trails, which, according to him, allowed the ground to be prepared using incendiary capsules without being observed. He also mentions a change in method: after suspicious aerial drops were filmed by residents in previous years, this year the authorities reportedly favored devices that are more difficult to document. Finally, he accuses the Algerian state of refusing international aid offered by certain countries, and calls on the European Union, as well as environmental and humanitarian organizations, to intervene and classify the situation as ecocide.

A truth locked down by the regime

These assertions cannot be corroborated by any independent investigation or international body, as no media outlet can verify on the ground the intentional and state-sponsored origin of the fire outbreaks mentioned. The ban on forest access mentioned by Ferhat Mehenni does exist: the Algerian regime has banned access to the forests and forest tracks of Kabylie until November 30, 2026—a measure officially justified by fire prevention. This is a justification that the MAK disputes, but which remains, as things stand, the explanation given by the authorities.

It should also be noted that this is not the first time the issue of the 2021 fires has pitted the two sides against each other on the judicial front, but in reverse: an international arrest warrant with no legal basis was issued by Algeria against Ferhat Mehenni, accusing him of having planned, via the MAK (classified as a terrorist organization by Algiers since 2021), that summer’s deadly fires as well as the fatal lynching of a man suspected of being responsible for them. Ferhat Mehenni has always rejected these accusations, denouncing a “judicial masquerade” during the subsequent trial. This longstanding legal and political antagonism sheds light on the mutual distrust, but makes prudence in interpreting the facts by both parties all the more necessary.

Kabyle villages and towns in ashes

Beyond the controversy over the origin of the fires, one reality commands consensus: every summer, Kabyle families must evacuate in an emergency, villages are threatened, hundreds of hectares of forests and olive groves go up in smoke, and lives are lost, including among volunteers mobilized to fight the flames. This year again, residents have organized spontaneously to clear brush and protect their villages, supplementing the resources deployed by Civil Protection and the army.

Whatever the exact origin of the fires—climatic, accidental, criminal, or, as Ferhat Mehenni claims, deliberately orchestrated by the state—the repetition of these disasters raises a fundamental question: that of prevention, the maintenance of forest massifs, the firefighting resources available in a hard-to-access mountainous region, and the transparency of the authorities regarding human and material losses. It is on this factual and verifiable ground that citizen and international mobilization can stand most solidly today.