No fewer than 700 shelters were destroyed by fire in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp at Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State.
The Secretary of the Council, Mohammed Lawan-Sheriff, who made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, said that dozens of households in the camps razed during the fire outbreak, which started at about 11a.m. on Tuesday and lasted for several hours.
According to him, the fire incident, which began from a tent, gutted other shelters because there was no immediate fire service response in the camps at the time of the incident.
He said the combined efforts of the IDPs, Civilian Joint Task Force, security agencies and other Good Samaritans brought the situation under control.
“Immediately, we heard about the incident, we quickly mobilised the host community and rushed to the scene to put out the fire. So far, no death was recorded,” he said.
The secretary explained that the council and other partners were working to address the humanitarian situation at the camps.
“We have asked the 11 camp managers to assess the level of damage and do the head count to ensure that everyone is safe, while an ambulance was placed on standby to evacuate any injured persons,” he said.
