ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Eleven tents were burned to the ground in an overnight fire at a camp housing displaced Yazidis in Duhok province on Saturday. The head of the camp said they will compensate the victims who lost property. “At 2:30 [in the morning], a fire broke out in the space between the tens due to an electrical circuit. It is not clear how it happened,” Maamun Yahya, head of Chamshko camp, told Rudaw English. One of the victims said he lost $13,000 cash, passports, identity and citizenship cards of the family. “When the fire took place, I was at work. They [my family] called me at around 4am to inform me that our tent had burned down. My wife could only save herself and the children,” he told Rudaw. Another said he lost $10,000 cash and all their furnishing. Chamshko is home to 22,800 Yazidis who fled their homes in Shingal district in 2014 when Islamic State (ISIS) fighters attacked the area. Every year, there are fires and floods in the many displacement camps in the Kurdistan Region. Yahya said they have warned the residents of the camp several times about the dangers from ad hoc electrical wiring and have visited each tent to explain to people how to prevent accidents and fires. Life is difficult in the camps, especially during cold winters. The head of the camp said they will compensate the victims with new tents and home appliances in cooperation with humanitarian organizations, especially the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF). Additional reporting by Yousef Musa
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