United Nations teams have been deployed along Syria’s coastal region to support efforts to extinguish raging wildfires, now in their fourth consecutive day in Latakia province.
UN humanitarian coordinator in Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, stated that the fast-moving fires have forced hundreds of families to flee, destroying large swathes of farmland and vital infrastructure. Emergency assessments are currently underway to identify the most urgent humanitarian needs.
Firefighting teams from Turkey and Jordan have joined Syrian forces, providing aerial support via helicopters, as emergency crews work to shield the dense forested Al-Farnlek Nature Reserve from the advancing flames.
Syria’s Minister of Emergency Affairs, Raed Al-Saleh, described the situation as “tragic,” revealing in a post on Platform X that hundreds of thousands of trees had been destroyed across 10,000 hectares. He expressed sorrow over the loss of vital “sources of clean air.”
The wildfires come amid expert warnings about worsening summer blazes in the Eastern Mediterranean, driven by climate change and hampered by unexploded remnants of war that hinder firefighting efforts.
