Greece appoints new minister to handle wildfire aftermath
The Peninsula
ATHENS - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday appointed a new minister in charge of recovery from natural disasters in a bid to defuse growing anger over the struggle to curb wildfires that have charred thousands of hectares of forest.
Mitsotakis has this week apologised for delays in the firefighting effort while defending his government's action and authorising a 500-million-euro ($586.95 million) relief package. Hundreds of houses and businesses have been destroyed and around 65,000 hectares (160,620 acres) of forest destroyed by the conflagrations since the start of August, with relief finally brought by rain on Thursday on Evia, Greece's second-largest island and the scene of some of the worst blazes.More Related News