Brazil, August 26: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has on Sunday directed the nation’s military warplanes to dump water over the burning Amazon Rainforest in Rondonia province, reacting to a worldwide outcry over the destruction caused to the world’s largest tropical forest in Brazil.
According to Al-Jazeera news reports, Bolsonaro authorized its military operations in Amazon’s seven states to fight raging wildfires in the Amazon, adhering to their local administrations’ requests for assistance, an official from presidential office said.
The development comes as the leaders of nations in the G7 summit nations recently meeting in the French city of Biarritz expressed deep and grave concern over the wildfires.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron has stated the G7 was close to reaching a deal to offer “technical and financial help” to nations affected by the Amazon wildfires.
Bolsonaro announcement regarding the military support comes several days of condemnation from the world leaders and the public Brazilian government wasn’t focusing to resolve the fight of fires in the Amazon.
Moreover, he wrote on social media he had accepted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer of an aircraft and support for the firefighting operations, followed by a telephonic conversation between two leaders,
In a media briefing on Saturday, Brazil’s defence ministry has informed the authority had sent some 44,000 troops in the nation’s northern Amazon region.
Military personnel appeared around Porto Velho to be largely supporting firefighting operations, as per a Reuters witness. When asked for further details, the ministry told Reuters in an official statement the military have operationalized assistance and support to all seven states who called for help to support firefighting efforts which were already underway.
Brazilian justice minister Sergio Moro also authorized a military police force to help in reducing fires with 30 batches to be provided to Porto Velho from Brasilia.
Ricardo Salles, the environment minister of Brazil, posted a video emerging as a caravan of fire prevention trucks including other authorized vehicles, stating they were in the region to respond in Rondonia.
Following a mass rally across the nation and in Europe on Friday, thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday to protest in the Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro’s neighbourhood, chanting “Bolsonaro leave, Amazon stay” and demanding the authority to provide more to deescalate wildfires in the Amazon forest.
“Nature is being destroyed,” Teresa Correa, from the northern state of Para, told AFP news agency.
“The situation is worse since he (Bolsonaro) became president – he wants to explore and destroy everything.”
Colombian President Ivan Duque has said on Sunday he would seek to ink a conservation treaty with other Amazonian nations, first with Peru this week and then at the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly).
“Colombia wants to lead a pact, a conservation pact, between the countries that have Amazon territory,” Duque said after concluding a meeting with an Indigenous community in Leticia city of Amazon in southern Colombia.
“We must understand the protection of our Mother Earth and our Amazon is a duty, a moral duty.”