Fire kills a teenager at a displacement camp in Erbil

Shafaq News/ A fire swept through a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) near Kurdistan's capital city, Erbil, killing a 17-years-old resident on Sunday.

The fire broke out at Bahrka camp, which houses IDPs from northern Iraq's Nineveh Governorate, at around 8:30 pm, turning at least six caravans into ashes.

Believed to be caused by an electrical short circuit, the fire reportedly killed 17-year-old Abdullah Raiq, a resident of the camp who was born in Mosul.

Bahrka camp houses more than 960 families, numbering 4,732 individuals, over 1,300 of which are under 18, according to data provided by the UN's Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for May.

Fires are a common occurrence in displacement camps in the Kurdistan region.

In May, a fire tore through Duhok's Khanke camp, burning at least eight tents, but no human casualties were reported.

In 2021, an explosion at the Qadia camp in Duhok killed two children, including a one-month-old baby, and injured two other children.