A fire hit Semey Ormany, a forest and national park in the north east of the country on April 26. Semey Ormany suffered severe damage last summer when it was engulfed by massive fires, which burned more than 60,000 hectares of forest. Late on April 19, wildfires also broke out in the southern Almaty region. The authorities found themselves unprepared for the fires last year, not unlike this year with the floods that hit several regions.
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Syrym Sharipkhanov, the minister of emergency situations appointed in June last year after forest fires ravaged the north-east of the country, could now be laid off, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on January 25. Tokayev said that Sharipkhanov’s work was not satisfactory and the ministry needed “a more practical approach.”