Mass burial reveals hidden toll of Algeria's deadly 'Black Wednesday' wildfires

In late August, wildfires swept through northeastern Algeria and killed many people. The fires started on August 26 in a region called Jijel and spread fast. Locals and some officials called the disaster 'Black Wednesday.' A video posted online showed a large mass grave being dug, giving the world its first real look at how deadly the fires were.

A young man from Jijel filmed the video live on TikTok on August 27. Before the fires, he mostly posted about sports and fitness. After the disaster began, he started recording what was happening around him. A narrator in the video said many families were still searching for missing parents and children.

The mass grave was dug in Djemaa Beni Habibi, a small town about 30 kilometres east of Jijel. Other videos showed up to 13 coffins at once and more than 20 burial mounds marked only by water bottles or sticks. A large digging machine was still covering coffins when one video was taken, and a long section of the trench was still empty. Algeria's Prime Minister and other leaders attended the burial, but no official said how many people were buried.

Reporters from the FRANCE 24 Observers team found the village had posted two lists of victims' names on Facebook to help families find loved ones. After checking both lists and removing repeated names, the team counted 72 victims. This was already far more than the government's official count of just 12 deaths given on August 26.

Other reports made the gap even clearer. An Algerian congressman wrote that 19 members of one family alone died in the village of El Ancer. The FRANCE 24 team counted at least 98 victims from the Jijel region, and the number rose to nearly 130 when local news reports were included. One journalist documented more than 200 names, and a news outlet reported that sources close to the government said 385 people had died.