Syria reports progress in battle against devastating wildfires
Damascus
Firefighters have halted the spread of wildfires, which have ravaged Syria's north and forced hundreds to flee their homes in recent days, according to a government official.
'Firefighting teams are intensively working to extinguish remaining hotspots and cool the areas already put out,' Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management, Raed al-Saleh said over the weekend.
Al-Saleh, in a post on the social media platform X late on Saturday, said Syrian firefighters, who said the situation now is the best it's been in 10 days.
Firefighters, aided by helpers from Turkey and Arab countries, have taken a major step toward bringing blazes in the countryside of the northern province of Latakia under control.
The wildfires have displaced hundreds of individuals, destroyed agricultural land, and severely disrupted the livelihoods of communities in the coastal region, according to the United Nations.
On Thursday, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, said $625,000 would be allocated to support emergency response efforts for people affected by the wildfires.
The fires, fuelled by strong winds exceeding 60 kilometres per hour and persistent drought, have scorched over 100 square kilometres, which amounted to more than 3% of Syria's total forest cover, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said earlier this week.
Firefighting efforts have faced hardships also due to rugged terrain and the presence of unexploded ordnance from Syria's war of more than a decade.
Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Qatar have dispatched teams to assist Syria in battling the fires.
While there has been no official announcement about the cause of the wildfires, some online commentators accused loyalists of former president Bashar al-Assad, toppled in December, of igniting the blazes.
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