The Borno State Emergency Management Agency has confirmed three deaths in Saturday’s fire at the Muna El-Badawy internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Maiduguri.
Its CEO, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo, confirmed the death toll during an impact assessment visit to the site. She said at least 3,000 shelters were destroyed while dozens of homes in the camp were displaced.
She said the fire, which started in a tent, destroyed other shelters because there was no immediate response from the fire service at the camp at the time of the incident.
Kolo noted that outbreaks of fires in camps and communities where IDP returnees had been resettled were becoming commonplace.
She said there was a similar incident recently in Ngirburi village in the Jere local government area in which two people were killed.
“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 in the Mandarari IDP camp, located within the city of Konduga in the Konduga Local Government Area,” he said.
Kolo said the agency was conducting an assessment to determine the level of damage, noting that the critical needs of the victims were food, shelter and other non-food items.
“We call on the National Emergency Management Agency, the Northeast Development Commission and the Federal Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to help the internally displaced,” he said.
