By Babagana Wakil, Maiduguri
The Borno State Emergency Management Agency has confirmed the death of three persons in Saturday’s fire at the Muna El-Badawy Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Maiduguri.
Its Director-General, Yabawa Kolo confirmed the toll during an impact assessment visit to the scene.
According to her, 3,000 shelters were destroyed while dozens of households in the camp were displaced.
She also said that the fire, which began from a tent, gutted other shelters because there was no immediate fire service response in the camp at the time of the incident.
Kolo noted that fire outbreaks in camps and communities where returned IDPs had been resettled were becoming a regular occurrence.
She said there was a similar incident at Ngirburi village in Jere local government area recently in which two persons died.
“There have been records of huge losses of food and non-food items as well as animals that were destroyed during the fire disaster.
“Another fire incident occurred at Mandarari IDP camp, located within Konduga town in Konduga Local Government Area,’’ she said.
Kolo said the agency was conducting assessment to ascertain the level of damage, noting that the critical needs of the victims were food, shelter and other non-food items.
“We appeal to the National Emergency Management Agency, the Northeast Development Commission and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to assist the IDPs,’’ she said.
