Five burnt to death in Borno IDP camp, resettled community

By Benjamin Omoike

At least five persons have been burnt to death after a fire outbreak in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), camp and a resettled community within two Local Government Areas of Borno State.

The Director General (DG), of the State Emergency Management  Agency (SEMA), Hajja Yabawa Kolo, confirmed the incident and has begun assessment of destroyed facilities.

At the weekend, a fire outbreak occurred at Muna IDP camp, burning down over 3,000 temporary shelters where over 10,000 IDPs were affected and three persons including a child lost their lives.

Survivors were seen counting their losses on Saturday morning when the SEMA boss visited the scene of the incident. Sympathisers were also seen gathering and condoling  persons who lost their loved ones in the
inferno.

The SEMA DG said that she was at the camp to assess the level of damage and make a quick recommendation to the state government for immediate assistance to affected persons.

“SEMA is continuing with its assessment and we will liaise with the state government to bring aid to the affected IDPs. So far, some of their critical needs are food, shelter and non-food items.

“We are appealing to all our partners, especially National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and the North East
Development Commission, to come to our aid,” Kolo said.

Similarly, a fire incident occurred in one of the resettled communities  of Ngirburi Village, Jere Local Government Area, where two persons were consumed by the inferno, houses and other valuables
were also burnt.

Another fire incident happened same day in another resettled community of Mandarari, in Konduga Local Government Area, but no life was lost.