SOUTH Africa has agreed to send firefighters to help combat forest fires which have been ravaging tracts of southern Ethiopia for the past 27 days. More than 50000 hectares have been totally destroyed by the fires, which are burning in the Borena and Bale areas, endangering rare wild animals as well as local flora. South Africa will provide firefighters as well as a team of experts for the first phase of the operation, expected to last for 10 days. On Monday, an international fire emergency group trying to cope with the blaze, led by the German-based Global Fire Monitoring Centre, appealed for urgent assistance from the international community.