Residents of three communities fell victim to fires that destroyed their livestock and livelihoods on Sunday, March 5. Adam Amadou Visit the disaster area and report the situation of the victims.
A mysterious fire has razed three neighboring communities in Jigawa state. The fire started from Malamawa, moved to Karangiya and ended at Kwalele village in the state’s Kiyawa local government area.
The fire destroyed all villagers’ houses, farms and stored food. In addition, more than 300 sheep, goats and an unknown number of chickens were killed in the fire.
The victim of the fire, whose name is Malam Suleman Abdul’aziz, told the Nigerian Tribune that the fire started at around 11.40am on Sunday when most of them (men) were doing business and Do business while some are in the market.
Abdulaziz added: “No one knows the cause of the fire. It started on the side of the road outside the city, where there are no residents.”
According to him, “This year all our produce, livestock and materials were destroyed by the fire. All the clothes of our wives and children were destroyed by the fire.
“You can see me and most of us with nothing but clothes on us. For fire is mysterious. It comes suddenly and spreads like the wind. Three or five rooms of the house burn down all at the same time. When our attention While concentrating on a specific side, we see the fire jump to other places. Terrible!
“The fire lasted more than two hours before the fire department and firefighters from Douz International Airport arrived from the capital, a distance of more than 40 kilometers,” he added.
Victims are calling on federal, state and local governments to establish IDP camps. According to them, they were exposed to the harsh weather in the area, mosquitoes and other harmful insects.
Malam Saleh Usman, the village head of Karangiya, told the Nigerian Tribune that people in the village have lost all their produce. “As you can see, all the local silos and stores where we store our food and cash crops have burned down.”
According to him: “We cannot quantify the loss. Hundreds of sheep and goats have been burned. Animals are not in the fields due to irrigation operations. We will not release our animals. So many properties have been burned in these villages.”
He said people in his community, especially children and women, were at risk because they had no shelter.
Usman called on state and federal governments and organizations to support them to mitigate their losses.
One Abdulrahman Abdullahi, an 83-year-old father of 15 children who lost his house and all his belongings, lamented: “We are sitting outside our house. We have no shelter. Everything is burned. I’m gone. All I have left is the clothes I’m wearing now. Please help save us.”
Another victim, Hafsat Abdullahi, a 59-year-old widow from Maramawa, said she lost everything except her clothes.
“We are running our lives now and we have nowhere to go because this is our ancestral village. I don’t have any other village now,” she said.
Hafsat insisted that her hibiscus, millet, corn, sesame and other agricultural products, as well as her house property, were completely destroyed.
She appealed to the relevant departments to come to the rescue and provide them with necessities.
Housewife Asmau Isma’ila described her experience of losing her house and furniture, among other possessions, while her husband was traveling. “I didn’t take anything from my room, not even a single piece of clothing. I only had the clothes I was wearing,” she said.
Ismaila added that she had never experienced such difficulties and called on the government and other humanitarian agencies to come to their aid.
In response to the crisis, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has delivered relief supplies authorized to provide relief to victims in affected communities.
Delivering the aid, NEMA Director General Alhaji Mustapha Habib Ahmed said the relief support was at the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Saadia Omar Farouk which provided.
Alhaji Mustapha Habib Ahmed told the community that the federal government cares about their plight and the conditions they are in. That’s why relief supplies are being sent.
He explained that the delivered items were based on an initial assessment conducted by the NEMA Kano Regional Office in collaboration with the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency.
He said: “I inspected the devastation caused by this unfortunate fire and was amazed by the number of homes that were burned. It affected the livelihoods of almost all people in the community.”
The Director-General therefore assured the victims that further support may be provided in terms of construction materials to enable them to rebuild their homes.
Ahmed insisted that the items delivered were to complement the initial response of the Jigawa state government’s relief intervention for those affected.
President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu has donated millions of naira to fire victims.