The Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, has visited victims of fire disaster at Muna Elbadawy Internally Displaced Person camp in the state.
At least five persons were on Friday 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.
On Friday afternoon, a fire outbreak occurred at Muna IDP camp, burning down over 3000 temporary shelters where over 10,000 IDPs were affected and three persons including a child lost their lives.
Another fire incident occurred in another resettled community of Mandarari in Konduga Local Government Area but no life was lost.
Survivors were counting their losses on Saturday morning when the Borno State Emergency Management Agency officials led by its Director-General, Yabawa Kolo, visited the scene of the incident.
The remote cause of the fire could not be ascertained but sources within the camp suspected cooking fire.
However, Zulum, while on a sympathy visit to victims of the fire disaster at Muna Elbadawy IDP camp, directed SEMA to list and submit details of the number of affected households for proper intervention by the state government.
The fire disaster at the camp claimed one life, injured 17 others with over 100 shelters destroyed. Situated on the outskirts of Muna-Maiduguri road, the camp consisted of more than 10,000 households and 50,000 individuals.
This was contained in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday by the spokesperson of the governor, Isa Gusau.
“Zulum announced that the state government is looking at all possible ways to collaborate with the federal government and humanitarian partners to come up with a mechanism to resettle them and other remnants of IDPs in and around Maiduguri back to their ancestral homes or nearby towns such as Ngwom and other towns,” the statement read in part.
According to Gusau, the governor lamented that many do not understand why Borno State government is trying to resettle IDPs back to their ancestral homes. He observed that there is no way, at any point the state government is forcing any IDP back to their homes.
The governor further explained that the resettlement will enable them to re-establish their livelihood and give them the ability to properly discipline and safeguard the moral upbringing of their children.
“This will also allow the host communities to develop by decongesting its population,” Zulum observed.
