Peru declares state of emergency in regions affected by wildfires

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in three regions affected by devastating forest fires that have burned through swathes of the nation's Andean and Amazonian crop lands and left 16 dead.

Dina said the heavily forested northern regions of Amazonas, San Martin and Ucayali will be under the new emergency measures, following several requests from local authorities for more resources to be allocated to fight the fires. She urged farming communities to stop burning grasslands as thousands of hectares have gone up in flames, while noting that the fires are also a result of the lack of rainfall caused by climate change.