No fewer than three persons lost their lives and 3,600 other displaced in a fire inside an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in the Customs Area of Maiduguri.

Yabawa Kolo, the Director General of the State Emergency Management Agency, told journalists in Maiduguri on Wednesday.

Mrs. Kolo revealed that the incident, which occurred on Tuesday, also affected food items.

She explained that the first incident occurred very early in the morning, while the second incident happened in the afternoon at about 2:00 pm, razing about 600 shelters.

The SEMA boss added that the blaze might have started from a cooking fire that grew out of control in one of the tents.

She, “We recorded such incidents in Gajiram where 338 households were affected.”

According to her, the agency and other key partners had adopted proactive measures to mitigate such incidents reoccurring.

Kolo added that the agency and other partners would provide food and non-food items to the affected families to alleviate their suffering.