The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has offered to make two firefighting planes available to the Algerian government to help it overcome the fires that are ravaging Algeria, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on its social media on Wednesday.
The Moroccan King gave “His Very High Instructions to the Ministers of the Interior and of Foreign Affairs, in order to express to their Algerian counterparts, the availability of the Kingdom of Morocco to help Algeria fight the forest fires which are ravaging several regions of the country.”
Morocco indicated that “two firefighting planes were mobilized to participate in this operation, with the agreement of the Algerian authorities.”
The offer comes a few days after a speech from the Throne in which King Mohammed VI declared that “the security and stability of Algeria and the tranquility of its people are organically linked to security and stability from Morocco.”
Initial assessments of the fires reported 69 deaths, including 28 soldiers.
The President of the Algerian Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has declared three days of national mourning, starting on Thursday, in tribute to the “citizens and civilians” who lost their lives in the fires.
The national mourning is accompanied by “the temporary freeze of all local government activities, except those related to solidarity.”
