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July 24 (UPI) — More than 200,000 people fled their homes on Friday in fear of powerful wildfires tearing through Spain and France.

Spanish authorities declared a national emergency as three blazes burning near Madrid merged into one, forcing some 60,000 people from their homes.

In France, 141,000 people were evacuated from the regions of Gironde and Landes.

“This is the worst wildfire in our region’s history,” Madrid’s regional leader, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, told reporters.

France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, said 50 firefighters had been injured fighting the wildfire.

“We have never seen a convective fire of this magnitude,” Nunez told TF1.

“We are going to reorganize our response so we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing toward Bordeaux,” he added.

In Madrid, firefighters said the blaze is beyond their control, BBC reported.

“The wildfire is at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain,” Carlos Novillo, emergency management chief in Madrid, told reporters.

“It’s not possible to attack the fire in that area, so defensive measures are being taken,” he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the country requested support from the European Union.

“We will soon be able to count on reinforcements from two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor planes, as well as two heavy Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” Macron wrote on X. “This concrete, swift, and operational solidarity is a precious strength in the ordeal.”

The president said the situation remains “under very high tension.”

“My thoughts go out to our firefighters and the rescue forces who are battling relentlessly on the fire front,” Macron added. “Their courage commands respect.”

As 6.3 million people embark on road trips, the UKHSA has issued a yellow heat health alert with a risk to life for the elderly and vulnerable

More than six million people are hitting the roads as the summer holidays begin – battling 30C temperatures and nose-to-tail traffic jams.

The AA predicts 6.3 million of us will make journeys between now and Thursday. Yellow heat health alerts are in place across much of the country until tomorrow morning and the UK Health Security Agency is warning of minor impacts on health and social care services and an increased risk to life for vulnerable people.

The Port of Dover is braced for its busiest weekend of the summer. Holidaymakers faced gridlock as they waited for ferries today, and tomorrow is set to be the same. Ferry company DFDS said its wait times at Dover were up to 60 minutes at border controls.

But officials hope it will be smooth sailing compared to the May half-term getaway, when waiting times hit four-and-a-half hours due to technical issues with thenew border check Entry Exit System.

The RAC’s Simon Williams warned: “Drivers should be ready for some very busy roads this weekend and expect delays. The best advice is to plan journeys and think about setting off earlier or later in the day to avoid traffic jams.”

Opting to stay at home this week will also come with its challenges. Millions of Brits are now subject to hosepipe bans and a drought has been officially declared for large parts of north and mid-Wales.

The rest of Wales, along with much of central, southern and eastern England, is in the “prolonged dry weather” ­category – one stage below a drought. But parts of Britain might be in for some light relief from Sunday, as high pressure retreats and brings outbreaks of rain.

Showers could be heavy in the north and the west of the UK, with 20mm possible in parts of north west Scotland. The rain will be much patchier further south and east, with large swathes of England and Wales forecast to get just a few millimetres at most. And it’s likely some locations in the south of England will not see a drop.

The Met Office’s Dan Suri said: “After a prolonged spell of hot, dry and settled weather, some will see a temporary change this weekend as weather fronts move south east across the UK. While some areas, particularly in the north and west, will see rain and showers, many places are likely to receive ­relatively little rainfall.

“For much of southern England, dry conditions are expected to remain the ­dominant feature, with ­temperatures recovering quickly next week and the potential for very warm or locally hot weather to return.”

Meanwhile, British holidaymakers were among thousands evacuated from the Cap Ferret peninsula as wildfires raged across south-west France. Tens of thousands are being forced to leave the upmarket resort, including hundreds escaping by boat.

Headmaster David Morton, 53, from Gloucester, was holidaying in the coastal village of Petit Piquey with his wife and sons when they received an emergency text message at 3am.

He said: “We got in our car, packed everything up as quickly as we could… and then set off and joined a very long, slow-moving queue of traffic. We could see several fires in the distance. The whole forest was on fire.”

The fire has so far consumed around 10,000 hectares – nearly the size of the city of Manchester – with water-bombing planes deployed in a bid to keep the flames under control. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 40,000 people either had been or were preparing to evacuate from the Cap Ferret peninsula.

Firefighters also battled blazes in Le Porge and Lacanau in the Gironde department of south-west France, while smoke from the fires dominated the skyline in nearby Biscarrosse.

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain has declared a national emergency after 20,000 people were forced to flee due to fires near Madrid, while the Italian island of Sicily has also been hit.

July 23 (UPI) — Three firefighters were killed, two in France and one in Italy, and 12,000 people were forced to evacuate as wildfires continued to ravage areas of southern France, Italy and Spain.

Almost 6,000 acres have been burnt in the area west of Bordeaux, where 10,000 people were ordered to flee amid a ban on internal combustion and electric engines and road closures, the Gironde regional government said Thursday.

Authorities said 500 firefighters were tackling the blaze, which was moving southwestwards after breaking out in Saumo, a small town 20 miles northwest of Bordeaux, on Wednesday and that firefighting aircraft were en route to the scene.

No injuries had been recorded.

The two French firefighters died Tuesday as they battled to bring a separate blaze under control in a suburb of Bordeaux.

Var, a department on the Cote d’Azur between Marseille and Nice, was also badly affected, with thousands of acres burnt. Residents evacuated there were allowed to return to their homes Thursday to assess damage on strict instructions to restrict movement and activities because of the risk the fire could flare up again, amid windy conditions.

Meteo-France red alerts for forest fires were in place across several other departments in southern France on Thursday.

In Italy, a firefighter was killed and another was injured Wednesday battling a major fire on Sicily.

Sicilian Civil Protection chief Salvo Cocina said the wildfire in San Cataldo, in the southwest of the island, was one of 10 major incidents that had triggered the evacuation of residents, as a precaution.

About 6,000 firefighters, forestry officers and civil protection personnel were deployed in the operation.

The regional government said the most critical fires were in Casaboli, Bivona, Alimena, San Cataldo, Galati Mamertino districts and certain areas of the Madonie Park and Syracuse areas.

Footage online, shot by the Spanish Civil Guard, shows officers going door-to-door telling residents to leave as a major wildfire raged southwest of Madrid, between Almorox and Villa del Prado.

It comes after a huge wildfire to the north of the capital in Guadalajara province that broke out on July 16 razed almost 80,000 acres and a deadly forest fire in southeastern Almeria province that killed at least 11 people on July 10.

Across European Union countries, wildfires have burnt more than 628,000 acres so far in 2026, European Forest Fires Information System figures show — although the figure was below the 668,000 acres burnt in the same period in 2025.

There is growing anxiety among residents after nine Ebola virus patients escaped from a treatment centre in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after a fire outbreak. Authorities and the local population are deeply concerned that these individuals could spread the Ebola disease to other provinces.

On June 30, nine patients suddenly vanished from the health facility after a group of hostile locals set the Nia-Nia Ebola treatment centre on fire. Among the missing patients are two confirmed cases of Ebola infection and seven suspected cases.

According to Joseph Pemanakue, the chief medical officer of the Nia-Nia treatment centre, the patients have still not been found several hours after fleeing the health facility.

“The burnt-down centre was housing two confirmed positive cases of Ebola as well as seven suspected cases. The nine patients fled from the structure and remain to be tracked down, causing fear of an increased propagation of the epidemic within the community,” Joseph said.

The attack on the treatment facility happened after some members of the community refused to surrender the body of a suspected Ebola patient to the medical team. This confrontation escalated quickly, resulting in the destruction of the treatment centre and the loss of a significant stock of medicine and medical equipment.

The local authorities consider the incident to have seriously compromised the efforts to contain the epidemic in Ituri province.

“Some opinion leaders manipulate the population by affirming that Ebola is a business, whereas the disease actually exists. In PK 51, we have recorded ten deaths. A corpse tested positive was removed from a coffin and transported by the population, an action which increases the risk of spreading the disease. The health facility responsible for taking charge of patients, which was created after several efforts, was unfortunately destroyed,” said Alexis Mungaki, a chief of the Ngayo tribal group.

The incident occurred amid heightened tensions between specific communities and the Ebola treatment teams. Health officials are concerned that the escape of confirmed and suspected patients may trigger new transmission chains, as Ituri province continues to be the focal point of the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC.

Thousands of undocumented migrants in South Africa are rushing to leave after anti-immigrant protests, xenophobic tension and a June 30 deadline set by activist groups for them to leave. Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller reports from Cape Town.

Thousands of migrants shelter in a Durban park after being driven from their homes ahead of a June 30 expulsion ultimatum.

More than 3,000 Malawians, including hundreds of children, are staying in an open field in South Africa’s port city of Durban, after fleeing what they described as escalating anti-immigrant threats and attacks.

For weeks, groups armed with sticks, whips and shields have marched through parts of the country demanding that foreigners with no papers leave by June 30.

At the park, which transformed into a makeshift transit camp in Durban on Wednesday, many people said repatriation was their only safe option.

“It’s hard to stay here,” Falesi Chukuwumba, a Malawian national, told Al Jazeera. “You can see we are outside. How can we stay in this cold? Our children can get sick.”

Sayiba John, 33, a Malawian who fled Nazareth township with her husband and three children, told the AFP news agency her daughter, a Grade 2 pupil, was forced to abandon her exams.

“They said we must go. We have no choice in the matter,” John said. “It’s better our government take us away from here than to face the anger of the South Africans.”

Ellen Mwamulima, a 45-year-old widow, mother of three and former domestic worker in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape, fled a mob who nearly caught up with her and had to hide out in the bush for two weeks.

“It’s been very difficult because we lost everything, they burnt our houses and all our belongings,” the Malawian told Al Jazeera.

The anti-migrant marches have been backed by the MK Party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, which commands strong support across KwaZulu-Natal province.

When the party called on supporters to march against undocumented migrants, thousands responded. Demonstrators accuse foreign nationals of taking jobs and economic opportunities from South Africans.

“There are undocumented foreigners working everywhere in our business field,” Mythobisi Sabelo, one of the protesters, told Al Jazeera in Durban. “People here have been trying to find work for a long time and given up. It’s becoming an issue.”

Waves of xenophobic violence

But while demonstrators blame foreigners for South Africa’s economic and social issues, others argue that foreigners, particularly those from elsewhere in Africa, are being wrongly blamed.

The violence has spread well beyond KwaZulu-Natal. Five Mozambicans have been killed in Mossel Bay. More than 150 Malawians were bussed out of the Western Cape province over the weekend.

Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have repatriated hundreds of nationals this month, and a flight carrying the first group of Nigerians is due to depart Johannesburg.

About 150 additional migrants from Burundi, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe are sheltering at a government office not far from the Durban park.

South Africa has faced recurring waves of xenophobic violence since 2008, when dozens of migrants were killed and thousands displaced. Some three million foreigners – about 5 percent of the population, more than 63 percent of them from within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc – live in the country.

The latest flare-up comes as political parties campaign ahead of local government elections in November.

Migrants say they are living in fear after a campaign group gave people living illegally in South Africa until June 30 to leave. Nigeria’s diplomatic mission in South Africa says many of those returning no longer feel safe to continue living or working in the country.

Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto reports from southern Lebanon, where displaced residents say they will not leave again despite a sharp rise in deaths and intensifying Israeli strikes.